Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-07-Speech-3-062"
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"en.20091007.17.3-062"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, my group has always advocated mandatory referendums on the Reform Treaty throughout Europe. Voters in Ireland were the only ones with the opportunity to make their decision directly a year and a half ago. If we want the people to decide, then we must accept the result, even if we do not like it.
The government in Ireland went against the principle of democracy and conducted a second referendum, partly as a result of pressure from other Member States. Now they have the result they wanted. We on the Left abide by the principle of democracy, but our concern over the political orientation of the EU remains. The number of ‘no’ votes in Ireland indicates that we are not the only ones with this concern.
Our three main points of criticism are, firstly, that the previous policy of liberalising the financial markets, tax competition, decoupling of financial policy from economic policy and the dismantling of the social state contributed to the economic and financial crisis. As a result, this policy has led to an increase in poverty and inequality in Europe. Other than declarations of intent, very little has happened so far in terms of the regulation of the financial markets. On the contrary, while the unemployment figures are rising, the big banks are once again expecting large profits. The Treaty of Lisbon will continue this market economy policy with free competition. This is something that we cannot support.
Instead, we call for a fundamentally different approach to tackling social challenges. Our aim is the introduction of a social progress clause with minimum wages applying throughout the EU – the same pay for the same work in the same place. We must combat wage dumping.
Our second point of criticism is that the call for the Member States to gradually improve their military capabilities is incompatible with the aims of the Left, as is the entrenchment of a European armaments agency in primary European law. We will not support global military missions in order to assert our own interests. We do not want this kind of treaty; we want a treaty of disarmament rather than armament. It is paradoxical to be referred to as an opponent of Europe for this reason. Anyone in Europe who is in favour of armament is classed as a friend of Europe, but anyone in Europe who is in favour of disarmament is classed as an enemy of Europe. That is politically absurd!
So, the referendum in Ireland has taken place and, even if it did not turn out exactly as we would have wanted, we on the Left will continue to work to achieve more direct democracy in Europe."@en1
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