12 March 1998 Edition
The 2% Treaty
by Meadbh Gallagher
Yesterday the Taoiseach announced that those of us south of the border with a vote get to vote on the EU's Amsterdam Treaty on 22 May next. Oh joy.
And how we love it. According to European Commission figures, some 80% of us think the EU is a good thing, while only 3% of us think it's bad for us.
And lucky we are to be having a referendum. Lucky because of the late Raymond Crotty, who ignored the peeved protests of the government in 1987 and took the court case that led to the Supreme Court decision giving us the right to referendums on these things.
Lucky too because it has the face of democracy, and notwithstanding US planes filled with US soldiers stopping off to refuel tanks and tummies at Shannon airport on the way to the Gulf, a referendum shows that we're no servants to the big powers. Oh no.
But you know, we don't even realise our luck. We're almost exclusive members of the tiny two - that's the 2% of the peoples of the European Union who are actually going to be asked in referendums if they approve of this Amsterdam Treaty.
Bad luck to the Six Counties - you're not going to be asked. Bad luck too to the people of England, Scotland, Wales, France and Germany, to mention but a few. But there's consolation for you: the governments embarked on this new Treaty so that the Union and its institutions would be ``brought closer to the citizens of the Member States''. That's right.
And this is the Treaty that the pro-EU European Movement call ``A People's Treaty''.
So you see we're so lucky and we're not even aware of it. We're the people who'll be rubber-stamping a treaty which leads to a common defence policy for the EU powers and which ridicules our sacred `neutrality' and we're not even talking about it. We'll be members of that exclusive club that includes the Council of Ministers who actually get to have a say on the thing. And we can rest assured that no matter what way we vote on 22 May, it won't make a difference.
Oh bliss. We can carry on regardless. This 2% thing has a lot to offer.
The 2% Unionist population of the United Kingdom have known it for years. Now we're being taught it again in an EU vote. We're slow learners on this democracy thing, aren't we?
Yesterday the Taoiseach announced that those of us south of the border with a vote get to vote on the EU's Amsterdam Treaty on 22 May next. Oh joy.
And how we love it. According to European Commission figures, some 80% of us think the EU is a good thing, while only 3% of us think it's bad for us.
And lucky we are to be having a referendum. Lucky because of the late Raymond Crotty, who ignored the peeved protests of the government in 1987 and took the court case that led to the Supreme Court decision giving us the right to referendums on these things.
Lucky too because it has the face of democracy, and notwithstanding US planes filled with US soldiers stopping off to refuel tanks and tummies at Shannon airport on the way to the Gulf, a referendum shows that we're no servants to the big powers. Oh no.
But you know, we don't even realise our luck. We're almost exclusive members of the tiny two - that's the 2% of the peoples of the European Union who are actually going to be asked in referendums if they approve of this Amsterdam Treaty.
Bad luck to the Six Counties - you're not going to be asked. Bad luck too to the people of England, Scotland, Wales, France and Germany, to mention but a few. But there's consolation for you: the governments embarked on this new Treaty so that the Union and its institutions would be ``brought closer to the citizens of the Member States''. That's right.
And this is the Treaty that the pro-EU European Movement call ``A People's Treaty''.
So you see we're so lucky and we're not even aware of it. We're the people who'll be rubber-stamping a treaty which leads to a common defence policy for the EU powers and which ridicules our sacred `neutrality' and we're not even talking about it. We'll be members of that exclusive club that includes the Council of Ministers who actually get to have a say on the thing. And we can rest assured that no matter what way we vote on 22 May, it won't make a difference.
Oh bliss. We can carry on regardless. This 2% thing has a lot to offer.
The 2% Unionist population of the United Kingdom have known it for years. Now we're being taught it again in an EU vote. We're slow learners on this democracy thing, aren't we?