Irish MEP's should be asked to explain why they voted to suppress a report on corruption in the European Parliament, Libertas is saying today.

Fine Gael and Labour MEPs voted against publication of the report, which detailed the findings of an enquiry into corruption in MEPs expense claims. Fianna Fail MEPs voted alongside their Fine Gael and Labour Colleagues, but later "changed their mind" in accordance with parliament rules.

Independent MEP's Kathy Sinnott and Marian Harkin, along with Sinn Fein's Mary Lou MacDonald, voted to publish the report.

Libertas executive director Naoise Nunn said that the votes of the Labour and Fine Gael MEPs were at odds with their stated commitment to increased transparency and accountability in Brussels:

"This vote exemplifies everything that is wrong with the EU. The European Parliament is so divorced from reality that it thinks that it's ok to hide the truth about its own activities from the voters.

Fine Gael and Labour have been telling the voters that the Lisbon treaty will be "reforming the structures and institutions of Europe". They say that it will make these institutions more transparent. In reality, these same MEPs are voting in lockstep with their European Colleagues to hide as much information from the ordinary citizen as possible.

What does the Lisbon Treaty do to address problems like this one? Nothing. The truth is that our MEPs feel safe saying one thing to the Irish people and another thing to their European Colleagues, because they know that the institutions of Europe, even the parliament, are remote and disconnected from real political discourse in the member states.

This is an abject disgrace. Further, I question why Fianna Fail MEPs initially voted to suppress this report, but then changed their mind after the vote and went so far as to ask that this repentance be formally acknowledged?

The European Union's accounts have not been signed off for 13 years. Our own Government estimates that unnecessary regulation costs Irish Business over half a billion Euro every year. Now, we see the EU Parliament blatantly giving the middle finger to the electorate to whom they are allegedly accountable.

The Lisbon Treaty will not change this one iota. We will still have an arrogant and unaccountable European Union, only this time around it will have to worry even less about the concerns of ordinary people, in whom sovereignty is allegedly vested. It will have more power, less responsibility, and at the top of it all will sit an unelected President, travelling the world in a private jet speaking for the people of Europe.

In recent days we have seen the odds on a "No" vote slashed. Is it any wonder why?"

www.anphoblacht.com

By Eoin Ó Broin

IN THE coming months, the 26 Counties will hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The treaty is the most significant revision of the structures, procedures and policies of the EU since its foundation. It is vital that republicans understand the treaty and are able to debate the issues involved.
Recent Eurobarometer and Irish Times/MRBI polls indicate that Irish attitudes to the EU are changing. People are becoming more critical of the direction of the European Union. A majority of the 26-County electorate has yet to make up their minds on the treaty.
In the coming campaign every activist has a role to play in convincing friends, family, work colleagues and neighbours of the reasons why this treaty is bad for Ireland and the EU.

Here’s 20 reasons to reject the treaty.
1 The Lisbon Treaty agreed by EU leaders in November 2007 is almost identical to the EU Constitution agreed by EU leaders in 2004.
The Constitution was democratically rejected by the electorates of France and the Netherlands in referenda in the summer of 2005. They objected to the undemocratic and right-wing content of the Constitution. That EU leaders have returned with the same text in a different format is undemocratic and is an insult to the democratically-expressed wishes of the peoples of France and the Netherlands.

2 Article 46 of the Lisbon Treaty states: “The Union shall have a legal personality.” This is a major change to the legal basis of the EU because it transforms it from an arena of co-operation between democratically-elected nation states to a legal entity in its own right.
‘Legal personality’ would enable the EU to operate in the international area like a state, which it currently does not have the power to do. It could have its own diplomatic corps, negotiate and sign international trade agreements, incorporate existing international treaties into its own law and seek a seat at the United Nations.

3 Under Article 9 of the Lisbon Treaty the European Council changes from an inter-governmental body to a European Union institution.
Rather than act in the interests of the nation states who elect them, this change would mean that the Council would “aim to promote its [the Union’s] values, advance its objectives, its interests”. These values, objectives and interests are not determined by any election but by existing and future EU law.

4 Article 9 of the Lisbon Treaty removes member states’ automatic right to an EU Commissioner. It also reaffirms the “independence” of the Commission: “The Commission shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government or other institution, body, office or entity.”
As the Commission is responsible for drafting EU legislation and has what is known as the “power of initiative”, such “independence” simply means a complete absence of accountability from any elected body, whether at a national or at an EU level.

5 Article 48 of the Lisbon Treaty gives the EU powers to amend its own treaties, without recourse to an inter-governmental conference, a new treaty or a process of national ratification.
Until now, revisions of EU treaties required these three stages, ensuring that national governments and, in the case of Ireland, national populations are involved in the decision-making process. Article 48 dispenses with this and allows the European Council to make amendments by unanimity, without any process of national ratification. This means that, in the future, significant changes could be made to the structure, procedures or competencies of the EU without any recourse to a referendum.

6 The Lisbon Treaty contains a further eight articles which enable the European Council to extend specific powers in specified policy areas, including moving Common Foreign and Security Policy from unanimity to qualified majority voting, harmonisation of criminal law, and extending the powers of the European Public Prosecutor.

7 In to

n the next six months, a referendum will be held in the South on the EU Reform Treaty now known as the Lisbon Treaty, since EU Prime Ministers signed off on it in that city in December.

The Lisbon Treaty started its life as the European Constitution, which was finalised in 2004 by all the EU Governments. However as the process of ratification was underway in 2005, the Constitution was rejected in referenda held in France and Holland. This torpedoed the exercise and resulted in the formulation of the most recent Lisbon Treaty, which is really the same Constitution somewhat modified.

A major factor in the rejection of the Constitution was the hostility of the French and Dutch working class to the neo-liberal economic policies being pushed by the EU. There was particular concern over the abuse by employers of migrant workers in driving down wages and conditions – the familiar “race to the bottom”. This was wrongly portrayed by some commentators as xenophobia among the majority of the working class in those countries.

Over the next months as the campaign for the referendum develops, we will explain in much greater detail why the Socialist Party will be strongly opposing the Lisbon treaty. In summary it is because the Treaty consolidates the drive toward rightwing, neo-liberal policies, especially the privatisation of public services. It also consolidates the move toward an EU army and armaments industry for the purpose of giving the EU greater weight in the international arena.

Over the next year, all the EU member states will have to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. The governments of France and Holland found a simple solution to the mass opposition in their countries. They won’t put it to a referendum. The establishment politicians will make the decision instead. And the EU likes to style itself as a model of democracy!

This means that the Irish government will be under massive pressure to make sure the Treaty is approved in the vote. Every wing of the establishment – political parties, the media, the churches, business and trade organisations – will be pressed into service on the “Yes” side. The right wing leaders of the trade unions, now firmly part of the establishment, will also be involved.

The Green Party, with members of the European Parliament and Dail Deputies, played a prominent role in opposing previous treaties most recently in 2002 when the Treaty of Nice was re-run. Now the Greens’ leadership have utterly capitulated on this question as on just about every other issue.

The millionaire-owned press can be expected to play a dirty game to get the Treaty passed. To discredit those opposing, the Irish Times has highlighted the possibility of the extreme right wing French National Front Leader, Jean Marie Le Pen, coming to Ireland to help the “No” campaign. This was a manufactured story with reporters deliberately pushing this repulsive racist to say during press conferences that he might come “if he was invited”.

A lot of prominence is also being given to a right wing, so-called thinktank, Libertas, which is opposing the Treaty. Libertas was set up and funded by a character called Declan Ganly. He is a speculator who made a fortune dealing in privatised enterprises in Russia and in the privatisation of public property in Albania in the 1990s. In these countries privatisation amounted to a blatant robbery of public property to the benefit of local and foreign speculators. One can get an idea of the types involved from the fact that Ganly hired the corrupt politician, Liam Lawlor, as a consultant to his “privatisation voucher scheme” in Albania.

Ganly and his associates in Libertas are opposing the Lisbon Treaty from a very right wing position. There is a real danger that over the next months the debate will be seen to be between the right wing establishment “Yes” side and the even more right wing, self appointed clique, Libertas.

However, the Socialist Party will