Mere suggestion

WHEN Foreign Minister Micheál Martin suggests that securing a right to a permanent commissioner justifies voting for the Lisbon Treaty, he neglects to mention one crucially important fact.

Under Lisbon, we lose our right to “propose” a commissioner and we are only entitled to make suggestions, leaving the decision ultimately to the EU Commission president (article 17.7). What’s the point of having a commissioner when we can no longer decide who that commissioner will be?

Martin Daly