Depressing prospect if we vote down treaty

IN his letter (July 9), Anthony Leeding may be correct in implying a second rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish people is necessary to enable Britain to withdraw from the EU, if that is indeed what the British people want.

It is true that in the event of another No vote, if we have any integrity as a nation, we cannot continue to prevent the other member states from moving the European project forward.

What must inevitably happen in these circumstances is that Britain and Ireland will negotiate a new relationship with the EU, possibly joining Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland in the European Free Trade Area (EFTA).

Most of us old enough to remember what things were like in the old EFTA, before we joined the EEC in 1973, recoil at this prospect.

At that time, despite half a century of independence from Britain, we still remained economically dependent on our former colonial master.

Our currency was tied to sterling and coins and notes showing the image of a British monarch circulated as legal tender.

Participation in the European project enabled that stranglehold to be broken and the international standing and reputation of Ireland as a free and independent state finally began to rise as a result.

A return to a situation anything like pre-1973 is a depressing prospect.

Mr Leeding’s portrayal of the other member states as “federalist” is disingenuous. He must know that in most member states there are even fewer federalists than there are eurosceptics like himself.

Does he really believe those countries in central Europe which have suffered from German and/or Russian imperial ambitions, even more recently than Ireland’s colonial experience, would for a moment contemplate joining a new federalist enterprise? The only federalist organisation in Ireland would appear to be Libertas (Declan Ganley has called for a 25-page European constitution and for elected EU civil servants).

Colm O’Sullivan

Dromin

Cloghroe

Co Cork