Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-06-13-Speech-3-096"
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"en.20010613.3.3-096"2
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".
The reactions to the result of the Irish referendum of many leading European figures who were directly involved in drafting the Treaty of Nice or who are now playing up to it sycophantically make it quite clear that the type of Europe depicted in that treaty is based on total lack of respect for the people of Europe. In a sign of complete disregard for the dignity of the people, even before knowing the final result of the vote in which the Irish people expressed their views, Commissioner Verheugen dared to make the peremptory statement in relation to Ljubljana that an ‘Irish veto’ would in no way prevent the enlargement of the European Union as provided for in the Treaty of Nice.
Still on the subject of commissioners, the sight of Mr Barnier shamelessly pretending to speak for the Irish people and learnedly explaining to the readers of
on 11 June the three reasons for the Irish ‘no’ vote, which, according to him, have nothing to do with the Treaty of Nice, reflects the same total disregard for the sovereignty of nations. The Irish, who very scrupulously respect their Constitution, are the only Europeans to have had the privilege of being able to express an opinion on Nice in the most democratic way possible, i.e. by referendum. That meant they had the benefit of a real national debate on the content and implications of that treaty. Nonetheless, Mr Barnier declared that ‘the Treaty of Nice itself was not at issue in the Irish vote’…
Mr Védrine, caught up in the system after initially opposing the draft treaty, now rises pathetically to its defence, accusing the Irish of having succumbed to a kind of withdrawal instinct. Mr Moscovici is broadening the debate by welcoming the absence of a referendum in France: he dismissed this eminently democratic procedure by which the sovereign people are asked to state their views as a ‘pretext offering the coalition of ‘noes’ an opportunity to speak out against Europe’. As for the Foreign Ministers’ Council, since 11 June it has dismissed any possibility of renegotiating the Treaty of Nice to take account of the clearly expressed wishes of the Irish people.
This kind of stance very much gives the image of a Europe that despises its own peoples and is resolutely opposed to democracy; a Europe that is being built in a deliberately abstruse manner so as to be immune to the wishes or scrutiny of the people.
To pretend now that the Irish ‘no’ to Nice prevents enlargement is a nonsense. It is the Treaty of Nice that creates the problem here. On the contrary, thanks to the Irish vote, it is now possible, as Philippe de Villiers has proposed, to proceed with enlargement without confiscating national sovereignties. This can be done on the one hand by abandoning the supranational part of the treaty and including its annexed provisions on enlargement in future accession treaties, and on the other hand by enabling the candidate countries to join the European Union immediately, without the need for a supplementary treaty, by offering them accession to the intergovernmental part of the treaty as it stands."@en1
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