No treaty campaign by penniless Greens

THE Green Party has said it will not launch a campaign to inform the public of its stance on the EU reform treaty because it has no money.

The Greens hold a special members’ conference tomorrow to decide the party’s official position on the treaty. But regardless of whether members decide to support or oppose it, there will be no public information campaign.

A Green spokesman said yesterday the party had few resources left following its outlay on the general election.

Meanwhile, it has become clear that the Greens could remain divided on the treaty even after tomorrow’s convention.

The possibility exists that some Greens would canvass for a “Yes” vote and others for a “No” vote, depending on tomorrow’s outcome.

The party leadership supports a “Yes” vote and wants ordinary rank-and-file members to do likewise.

However, to officially endorse the treaty in the referendum later this year, the party needs two-thirds of members to support a “Yes” vote tomorrow.

That may not be easy, given that the Greens have advocated a “No” vote in every EU referendum since 1987.

The leadership is putting forward three motions in a bid to inoculate itself against a damaging defeat tomorrow.

The first motion is that the party “supports the Lisbon Treaty”.

If that is not passed by the required two-thirds, the Greens will move on to the second motion, which is that the party “opposes the Lisbon Treaty”.

Should this motion be passed it would create an obvious difficulty for the Green ministers, who are committed to supporting the treaty.

The party will therefore put a third motion to delegates, which essentially would allow the Green ministers, TDs and senators to support the treaty while the rank-and-file oppose it.

The motion would also allow individual members of the party to represent their own views when canvassing the public.

This means the Greens could send out a variety of conflicting signals on the treaty.

But the party has insisted that none of this represents a “cop out”.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael has slammed what it deems “interference” in Irish affairs by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the Greens in the European Parliament.

Mr Cohn-Bendit was reported yesterday as saying that a “No” vote in Ireland would produce a “big problem” for this country and that “Ireland can’t have it both ways: it can’t receive big subsidies from Europe and then vote against Europe”.

Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness said the remarks were “extremely patronising, dictatorial, disrespectful and unhelpful, but perhaps not surprising coming from where they do”.

She accused the Green Party of “speaking with contradictory voices, both within Ireland and in Europe”.

Ms McGuinness said Irish voters could interpret Mr Cohn-Bendit’s remarks as a diktat and respond negatively.

“Without giving the arguments for a positive vote, which I favour, his comments could result in the opposite prevailing,” she said.