Farmers urged to say Yes to Nice despite policy frustrations

FARMERS must not vent their frustration at current problems by voting no to the EU Nice Treaty, Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh warned today.

Mr Walsh said all current difficulties facing Irish farming would be far worse without EU support. He said the Irish taxpayer could not afford to give anything like the same level of support that the EU gives agriculture.

Writing in today's Irish Examiner, Mr Walsh argues that Ireland has derived huge benefit from its 30 years of EU membership. He said the EU had given 16 billion in regional and social fund grants and a total of 32bn to Irish farming in various supports.

Ireland had prospered with the EU's support since joining in 1973 and had got support to develop worker training, research and marketing. The EU's border-free single market and more recently the single currency had made Ireland very attractive to multinational investors.

Mr Walsh said the benefits given Ireland showed that smaller member states were always fairly treated. He said Ireland, with fewer than four million people, had three votes on the law-making Council of Ministers, while Germany, with 82 million people, had ten votes.

The agriculture minister said the Treaty of Nice was about decision-making changes to ensure that moving from 15 member states to 27 would not diminish the EU's efficiency. He said the 14 other member states and the 12 applicant states all wanted the Nice Treaty to be ratified and if Ireland disrupted that process the country's influence would suffer badly.

Mr Walsh said vital negotiations on mid-term farm policy review proposals due this autumn made it imperative that Ireland ratify Nice in the October referendum.

"To use the Nice Treaty referendum as a means of registering a protest against the Mid-Term Review proposals would not be just ironic it would be tragic," the minister said.