Libertas leader’s impossible pursuit

LIBERTAS leader Declan Ganley was in Brussels recently addressing a group of Eurosceptic MEPs. Before the Lisbon Treaty referendum, he said the Irish people should vote against and renegotiate it.

Mr Ganley said in Brussels the Irish Government should renegotiate this treaty and hold a second referendum, but only after all the other 26 EU member states had voted on the new text.

Does Mr Ganley really believe that Taoiseach Brian Cowen can come out and tell the leaders of France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Britain that they all must have a referendum on a renegotiated treaty, even though they have already ratified Lisbon within their respective countries. If the Taoiseach took this position, what political credibility would he have? International treaties are by nature a set of political compromises. That is the case also with the Lisbon Treaty, a sovereign international agreement by 27 different governments.

Was the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 not just a set of political compromises as well?

Libertas has yet to come forward with a specific set of proposals which should be renegotiated in the context of the Lisbon Treaty.

Sprouting vague generalisations about the future direction of the EU is hardly the solution to get Ireland out of the impasse it faces after its rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

Seán Ó Neachtain MEP

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