Unionists and eurosceptics back Sinn Féin in voting against treaty

SINN FÉIN was joined by Northern Ireland Unionist and British eurosceptic MEPs in a vote against the Lisbon Treaty in the European Parliament.

MEPs overwhelmingly supported the treaty, expected to be voted on in Ireland at the end of May.

The UK Independence Party’s (UKIP) five MEPs, sitting behind their mini-Union Jacks, applauded Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald who told the parliament in Strasbourg that the Lisbon Treaty further eroded democracy.

She was supported by Northern Ireland MEP Jim Allister, who also called for the treaty to be rejected and said it transferred more power to Brussels. He resigned from the DUP last March because it joined Sinn Féin in government.

Ms McDonald is one of two Irish MEPs who are against the treaty. The second is Cork-based independent Kathy Sinnott, a member of the Independence/Democracy group in the parliament to which UKIP belong.

They have pledged funds and volunteers to help in the no campaign.

Irish MEPs accused one another of lying and using scare tactics during the debate when UKIP members, wearing yellow T-shirts, said countries were “too chicken” to hold referendums.

Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell attacked Sinn Féin’s stance and said they were with “strange bedfellows” in the no camp.

“Sinn Féin has secured some very strange admirers in the European Parliament through their opposition to the treaty, a fact that the electorate should be aware of when judging the merits of the yes and no arguments,” he said.

Labour’s Proinsias De Rossa said the vote showed up the “bizarre alliance of market fundamentalists, ultra-left and ultra-right” that opposes the treaty and “peddle a big lie”.

In a blistering attack he said: “The multimillionaires, the Murdochs in Britain and the Ganleys in Ireland, cynically manipulate national chauvinism to preventEuropeans reaching beyond their national borders to regulate business in the interests of society.

“The others, Sinn Féin and their allies on the right, don’t trust the citizens’ ability to create an accountable trans-national democracy.”

However, Sinn Féin hit back, accusing Mr De Rossa of being willing to ignore the wishes of the Irish people by voting against their motion that the parliament would respect the outcome of the Irish referendum. Mr De Rossa said the parliament should not have been asked to interfere with the sovereign decision of the Irish people.

Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle warned fellow MEPs: “Please do not be tempted, in your eagerness for a positive outcome of our referendum, to tell the Irish electorate how to vote.”

FG’s Máiréad McGuinness called on Sinn Féin to acknowledge the EU’s role in promoting peace in the North. “I call on Mary Lou McDonald to see that this peace promoting role is what the treaty will enhance, not militarisation as threatened by Sinn Féin.”

The parliament supported Independent MEP Marian Harkin’s proposal to have the EU Council, representing the member states, publish the new treaty as a coherent document.