Treaty will aid our future prosperity by changing how the EU works

IN his letter (May 12), Conor O’Sullivan asked me to state how European governance would be improved by the Lisbon Treaty.

The treaty will give the EU the structures and capacity to keep an influential role in a changing world.

How can Europe keep a prominent place in the world with a different president of the European Council every six months and four persons dealing with EU external affairs?

We could not do business with a parliament made up of 1,000 to 1,200 MEPs — 751 is enough.

China, India and Brazil are on the rise.

By 2050, the EU will have only about 7% of the world’s population. If we are to remain prosperous and play a proactive role in the world, we need to change how the EU works and the Lisbon Treaty does just that for the benefit of Ireland and Europe.

The treaty will not turn the EU into a federal superstate and Ireland will not lose its sovereignty.

The EU has been conferred with powers to deal with policies that are better pursued in co-operation than alone. Lisbon would extend this to include climate change.

How sovereign were we when our interest rates were set by the British chancellor of the exchequer who also decided the value of our currency?

How sovereign were we when our biggest export was our people? Compare this to today when our interest rates are now set by an independent European Central Bank which takes account of the common objectives of all euro member states and has price stability as its mandate.

We have free and guaranteed access to a single market of 500 million people where all the states must play by common rules and large member state markets cannot be closed off to competition.

This helps create jobs for Irish people in Ireland, not in Cricklewood or Boston. It can be argued that we really became sovereign when we joined the EU (then called the EEC).

Let’s keep it that way by voting yes.

Gay Mitchell MEP

European Parliament Office

43 Molesworth Street

Dublin 2