Lisbon lesson for new EU member states
It didn’t ask if people supported the EU or if they were grateful for the grants provided by it.
Nor did it provide an account sheet to indicate how much we received in grants or how much other countries gained from having free access to our seas for fishing.
It simply asked people if they supported a particular treaty — one that follows in a long line of treaties and will no doubt be followed by many more, and they said no.
They didn’t vote no to the EU; they didn’t say ‘up yours’ now that the money has stopped and they didn’t say they wanted to leave the EU or the EU to leave them. The people of Ireland simply expressed their opinion that they did not support the particular treaty being put to them.
If joining the EU means a country’s citizens can never disagree with anything they are asked to vote on — if they are as lucky as Ireland to have the chance to vote — then this should be made crystal clear to all EU members and in particular to those countries which aspire to membership.
They must know that if they ever do join the EU that their people will never again be allowed to express an opinion that differs from what the political establishment tells them to believe.
So for those former communist countries it’ll be pretty much like it was before when citizens were used to doing what they were told without question by the people who made up their political establishments (incidentally, pretty much still the same people today).
If a no vote was so shocking, and was clearly going to be ignored, why go through the whole farce of having a referendum in the first place? Why didn’t the EU establishment just come clean and admit that no country has the right to challenge its wishes and that Lisbon was going ahead come what may. It’s no wonder the EU is so clueless about how to respond to issues like Zimbabwe, with or without a new super foreign minister. Given that the EU’s own grasp of democracy seems to be so compromised it’s hardly in any position to lecture others — even despots as outside the pale as Robert Mugabe and his cronies.
Desmond FitzGerald
Grosvenor Court
Wharf Lane
London
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