EU draft a threat to health and education
The Democracy and Public Services in Europe (DAPSE) group, like the Assembly of the European Regions, regards the draft constitution as unacceptable.
Mary Harney argues that in order to protect democracy, decisions on taxation in the council of ministers must be unanimous.
But the flip-side of taxation is public spending. We would argue that spending proposals also play a large part in the voter's decision on who to support. By extension of Ms Harney's logic, a "healthy local democracy" also necessitates the right to veto EU proposals on health and education.
She has argued that Irish control of Irish taxation was "approved explicitly in our referendum" on the Nice treaty. But the same referendum also provided a veto on the opening of international trade deals on health, education and cultural/audiovisual services.
The draft constitution has no such veto: the council of ministers could decide by qualified majority vote to offer the 'commercial aspects' of these services for international trade in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). We are not told what our representatives offer for trade in the GATS until after the deal is done; nor are we told how Ireland votes in the council of ministers.
The Tánaiste and presumably the rest of the Government want the right to keep corporation tax in Ireland lower than elsewhere in the EU. But they appear happy with a draft constitution that would allow health and education to become further commercialised where you will get only as much as you can pay for as part of the GATS.
Secret EU negotiations would allow private companies to run large parts of our health or education services, be paid out of our taxes, pay little tax themselves and in many cases export the profits. A curiously one-sided vision of "healthy local democracy" indeed.
Miriam Murphy,
Brendan Young
Democracy and Public Services in Europe,
PO Box 9124,
Dublin 1.
