Sharing keeps a nation’s identity

IT would seem that some of those who oppose the Nice Treaty are concerned about “the loss of democracy” and would prefer that the Irish Government retained an absolute veto on all EU decisions.

According to this definition, democracy means that decisions can only be made if 'I' agree.

Imagine a Dáil or the governing committee of any body, however small, in which each individual member had an absolute veto. Curiously enough, exactly such a liberum veto actually existed in the Polish parliament in the 18th century which was one of the reasons why the three old empires of that time gobbled up Poland and wiped it off the face of the map.