Lisbon Treaty was a democratic exercise

THE assertion by Michele Savage in relation to the Lisbon Treaty (Letters, July 2) that “the liberty, the equality and the fraternity to vote was denied to hundreds of millions of people throughout the EU” could not be further from the truth.

EU membership is a voluntary decision by 27 independent, free and democratic countries in which people elect those who govern them. It is the essence of democracy that the elected governments of the 27 EU countries spent many years negotiating a treaty on behalf of all of us.

Throughout the EU, therefore, we are all accountable and responsible for the Lisbon Treaty since the people we elected to act on our behalf negotiated it.

While giving two fingers to the Government is a function of democracy — they are in power too long and have become arrogant — I believe that using the referendum to do so was self-indulgent and unwise.

Our rejection of the Lisbon Treaty could have extremely unfavourable consequences for the welfare of each and every one of us in this small country.

Reading Michele Savage’s letter and many others in the same vein, I fear we are all in denial about the consequences.

Anthony Leavy

1 Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin 13