Michael Finnegan, who was elected Party President at the recent Workers’ Party Ard Fheis, said that the Yes campaign’s arguments reeked of an authoritarian, arrogant and flippant attitude of “we know best” which has been the stock answer to public apprehensions about the Lisbon Treaty.

“There is genuine public concern about the lack of accountability in the European instititutions”, said Mr. Finnegan, “yet the government and the rest of the Yes campaign’s only response to these concerns is to dismiss them in an arrogant, even discourteous, manner such as that typified by Dr. Garrett Fitzgerald’s comment about the ‘lunatic fringe’ in this morning’s Irish Times newspaper.  The current government ministers use the same type of colourful language rather than engaging in real debate on the substantive arguments in this referendum”, said the Workers’ Party President.

Mr. Finnegan said his party was more concerned about the lack of accountability of the European Commission than about its composition.  “Frankly it does not unduly worry us whether there are 27 commissioners or fifteen, but what does concern us is that these commissioners are accountable to nobody.   The Lisbon Treaty does nothing to change that imbalance and the changes in the treaty concerning the European Parliament do nothing to alter it”.

“Much play is made by the Yes lobby, particularly by the Labour Party, of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, but as a trade unionist I am very conscious of the recent judgements of the European Court of Justice which have put the rights of business to make profits before those of workers and the court has found against workers where their rights were seriously undermined”.

Mr. Finnegan said that the Yes side wanted to pretend that there were no military or foreign policy implications for Ireland contained in the Lisbon Treaty, yet that agenda was one of the few things in the treaty that was very clear.   “The creation of the post of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is the appointment of an EU Foreign Minister who will expect to have the same status internationally as the US Secretary of State. Meanwhile the Irish government will be obliged to increase military spending at a time when it is squeezing funds to our public hospitals. Furthermore, if there were no military or foreign policy implications, then the Crotty Judgement would not apply and we not even have a referendum".

“More than fifteen years ago the then EU Commission President Jacques Delors spoke of the ‘resources wars of the 21^st century’.  Unfortunately we are now nearer to that point and the European Union seems to be acquiring the same voracious appetite for the resources of other countries, particularly in Africa, that the United States has.  The Lisbon Treaty is another step along that road, it gives the EU the wherewithal to fight those wars, and we will have to pay for them, whether we participate in them or not.  That is why our slogan says  "Lisbon - a Treaty Too Far" and we urge a No vote in the referendum on June 12^th”, said Michael Finnegan.

Issued 29th May 2008