Europe – Page 23 – Slugger O'Toole

Lisbon strategy betokens short termism Cameron must leave behind…

Mick Fealty on October 5, 2009, 2:40 pm

| Readers 5

I’ve already written a couple of speculative pieces mulling over what the Irish approval of Lisbon might mean for the Conservatives in Britain. David Milliband’s op ed in today’s FT is clearly up to making mischief for the Tories. His main line of argument is that Cameron’s apparent capture by his Eurosceptic wing will shift the focus from pursuing larger goals, to more narrow, ‘what’s in it for us’ back and forth exchange with Brussels? According to Miliband trying to …

Are the Tories now planning a staged and inelegant climbdown over Lisbon?

Mick Fealty on October 4, 2009, 1:27 pm

| Readers 2

Danny Finklestein lays out what Dave is likely to do over Lisbon. And he doesn’t think, if William Hague is formulating the party’s response to Ireland’s emphatic yes to Lisbon, that Lisbon will figure until the changes have been made (and it looks like the much hoped for resistance from his political ally and Polish president Lech Kaczy´nski is collapsing) we will hear anything much about it in Manchester this week: Once bits of the Lisbon treaty have been implemented, …

David Cameron set to confound his critics over Lisbon…?

Mick Fealty on October 3, 2009, 11:28 pm

| Readers 6

Labour Matters compares David Cameron’s 2007 pledge (in The Sun) to give the people of the UK a referendum come what may, and this morning’s presser from campaign headquarters which shows the leader of the Conservative party. They rather leap on Paul Waugh’s conclusion that the first gives ‘Honest Dave’ no wriggle room: “Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM, a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations.? …

Lisbon Essay (31): Checks, balances and a stronger social dimension

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 9:24 pm

| Readers 12

And in the last of our Lisbon essays, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore rather trenchantly asserts that Lisbon is not about transfering power from Dublin to Brussels. It is he believes, in contrast to Jimmy Kelly in LE26, enhances a social Europe by setting the Charter up as a watchdog on all EU institutions when it comes to the framing and passing of law. And in contrast with Joe Higgins’ concerns in LE4 he believes it would provide a bulwark …

Lisbon Essay (30): The least impact upon the Irish Constitution of any Treaty ever voted on…

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 8:21 pm

| Readers 51

Ciarán Toland is a barrister (so we’ve given him a bit more space to make his case). In this, essay he lays out why he thinks the Lisbon Treaty has taken on a significance in Irish law that barely reflects insignificance in real terms. It lies primarily in the proposal to give the EU (previously three pillar multiple personality) and single legal personality of its own. Much else, he concludes is moving the furniture around: “…the Lisbon Treaty has the …

Murdoch soft peddling on Lisbon…

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 7:59 pm

| Readers 1

Over at Comment is Free I argue that the innate (small ‘c’) conservativism* of the Murdoch press seems to have left them curiously ‘unmanned’ in their Euroscepticism this time out with Lisbon… Which suggests his Irish readership is not as passionate about voting no as it was last year… * A conservatism that does not seem to stretch to the WSJ Europe, for a serious paper that sells poorly in Europe, its Eurosceptic line is not helping win readers. Mick …

Lisbon Essay (29): It is Ireland’s credibility that’s at stake…

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 6:26 pm

| Readers 9

John O’Farrell picks up on Heaney’s focus on the word ‘credit’ (nó creid as Gaeilge), and reckons that the poet has put his finger on what’s at stake for Ireland in the referendum when he argued that a No vote will mean that it will be “up to our EU neighbours – not us – to decide how we will be treated in the future.” It’s a theme taken up previously in LE17 and LE13. O’Farrell argues that even though …

Electoral Commission release Euro campaign figures…

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 6:02 pm

| Readers 1

And at 1 o’clock the Electoral Commission released the figures for party expenditure on the recent European elections… We’ve a copy of the press release complete with the topline figures here… The UCU-NF are the new big spenders on the bloc (with nearly 2/1 of party expenditure looking like it came from the Tories)… SDLP cut back significantly from 04.. and the Alliance spent most of their available cash on their candidate who subsequently walked… Greens have their first grown …

Lisbon Essay (28): How on earth do we switch this (EU) thing off?

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 5:30 pm

| Readers 31

Declan Ganley of Libertas notes that if you vote yes tomorrow, then there may be no more opportunities for the plain people of Ireland to turn this process around. This, he argues, is not the second time this treaty has been voted on but the fifth. That the only changes that have been made to it in all of that time (he makes the score 3-2 to the No side by the way) are purely cosmetic demonstrates just how far …

Referenda and the Phantom People who act like enemies of democracy…

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 2:44 pm

| Readers 9

Not everyone I approached for a Lisbon essay had the time to give us the full text for an article. One such was Professor John Keane of the University of Westminster and author of The Life and Death of Democracy… These are his shorthand thoughts on the usefulness of Referenda in general and their relationship with chambers of elected representatives…From Professor John Keane If the vote goes against the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty then this will undoubtedly add to …

Lisbon Essay (27): If it’s No, Europe will simply find a way to move on without us…

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 2:30 pm

| Readers 6

Dan O’Brien, senior Europe editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, posts from Berlin where he is covering the aftermath of the Germany election. He takes a sounding of insider opinion on Ireland and Lisbon, in several of Europe’s major capitals. The general assumption is that Irish voters will, as they did with Nice, change their minds in tomorrow’s poll. Most negative opinion is constellated around Paris and Berlin. In brief, that negativity centres around a disbelief that a …

What’s the real difference between Ireland and Iceland?

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2009, 1:14 pm

| Readers 30

In the race regain competitiveness, the critical difference is Iceland’s capacity to devalue its currency. The result? Iceland’s unit labour costs have fallen by 29% over the past 12 months, whilst Ireland’s dropped by only 4.3%. The FT’s Brussels blog: …the hard truth is that Ireland – like fellow eurozone members Italy, Greece and Spain – has a long and hard road ahead to claw back its competitiveness. And this is a lesson with even broader implications for Europe. For …

Reform in Ireland Can Start with a Yes to Lisbon…

Mick Fealty on September 30, 2009, 9:35 pm

| Readers 8

Last year Naoise Nunn was one of a small but hard working Libertas team which basically took on and bested the Yes campaign over the first Lisbon Treaty Referendum. This year he is voting yes. The common motivation between this year and last is that he wants to see substantial political reform, both in Ireland and Europe. He explains below the fold:By Naoise Nunn I campaigned against the Lisbon Treaty last time on the basis that a better deal was …

Lisbon Essay (26): A ‘No’ vote would show solidarity with the Charter and a social Europe

Mick Fealty on September 30, 2009, 8:39 pm

| Readers 12

Jimmy Kelly of the Unite Union is one of the most respected figures of the No platform. His position is relatively straightforward. In Ireland workers protections lag hugely behind that of much of Europe. In particular he argues that the Charter for Fundamental Rights is being sold as a fait accomplai, when in fact there is no obligation for national governments to comply with its imperatives: “In effect, the Government is asking us to support the ‘form’ of fundamental rights …

Lisbon Essay (25): As Iceland discovered the EU is the firebrigade…

Mick Fealty on September 30, 2009, 3:30 pm

| Readers 34

Jason O’Mahoney lays out a scenario he believes the No side is studiously avoiding: what happens to Ireland’s national interest within Europe if there is a No vote and Lisbon is abandoned for a more centralised, bi or tri-lateral decision making processes in its stead. The Treaty itself is dry and technical because it is dry and technical, not because anyone is trying pull a fast one. And he believes that counter to Nigel Farage’s assertions in LE10 the “alternative …

Aiste Liospóin (24): Níl, mar tá neamhspleachas mar oidhreacht duinne…

Mick Fealty on September 30, 2009, 3:00 am

| Readers 21

Vótáil Concubhar i gcoinne an Chonartha an uair dheireanach, agus ní bheith sé ag athrú a vóta an uair seo.. Tá dhá cheist difriúil ann dar leis: fearg leis an Rialtas, agus na rudaí a mbaineann go díreach leis an Chonradh féin. Níl an cheist faoi rogha idir an fhoireann seo nó an ceann eile; ach is rogha polaitiúil (agus, níos tábhachtaí, bunreachtúil) é. Faoi dheireadh, tarraingíonn an dara reifreann seo ar Chonradh Liospn, tar ?is breith chomh cinnte an …

Lisbon Essay (23): Why Ireland can’t afford the Lisbon Treaty…

Mick Fealty on September 29, 2009, 7:30 pm

| Readers 26

Niamh Uí Bhriain of Cóir sites her anti Lisbon argument in the material crisis of the Tiger economy. Nevertheless she notes that “the Lisbon Treaty is not about providing jobs or encouraging enterprise – it’s a treaty designed to centralise political power in the European Union”. She denies there are any short term economic consequences to signing up to the EU, but that in the longer term it leaves Ireland strategically weaker inside the EU… The attraction for foreign firms …

Lisbon Essay (22): Vote Yes to this unloved bastard son of the European Convention…

Mick Fealty on September 29, 2009, 4:00 pm

| Readers 8

Another European view and another from the Yes perspective comes from Daniel Cohn-Bendit, renegade from 1968 and currently co-president of the European Greens–European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament… No one loves it, he says. Who could? It long, legalistic, and complicated. An ad man’s nightmare. But it is the shaken down product of 8 years of filtering and dispute between all the countries of Europe. It’s not as democratic as he would like, nor as democratic as that …

“This Report is a major contribution to the debate..”

Pete Baker on September 29, 2009, 3:53 pm

| Readers 24

RTÉ reports some of the recommendations, and some of the criticisms of Invest NI, in the Independent Review of Economic Policy (IREP), chaired by the University of Ulster Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Barnett – full report here [pdf file]. In yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph David Gordon asked the question for the report to answer, “Are Invest NI really up to the job?” The Northern Ireland DETI Minister, the DUP’s Arlene Foster has welcomed the publication and “[intends] to carry out a short …

Lisbon Essay (21): Europeans cannot opt out of globalisation and its problems…

Mick Fealty on September 28, 2009, 7:17 pm

| Readers 14

Richard Gowan notes that with the changing of the guard at the US Whitehouse President Obama is not likely to constrain himself to old alliances to deal with the problems of a much larger and more complex (not to mention more dangerous) world than most of us knew growing up… Richard notes that already huge amounts of time are being chewed up in 27 sets of bilaterals on different sets of policy initiatives … And he argues that since the …