26 March 1998 Edition
Amsterdam Treaty opposed
Caoimhghín O Caoláin TD voiced Sinn Féin opposition to the Amsterdam Treaty when the proposed amendment to the constitution to ratify the Treaty was debated at the committee stage. Speaking on Wednesday he said:
``James Connolly, who has been mentioned here already in this debate, once said that ``the internationalism of the future will be based on the free federation of free peoples''.
What is being constructed under the Amsterdam Treaty is not a free federation but a giant superstate with no democratic accountability to its citizens.
``I want to deplore the patronising and insulting tone of a number of speakers who have treated with disdain the legitimate position of all those who oppose the Amsterdam Treaty. There have been attempts to smear and discredit those of us who are defending neutrality. We have been aligned with the extreme right in Europe but strangely Deputy De Rossa has had no difficulty in lining up with the traditional right in this State when he was in government. The long-time advocates of so-called democratic centralism have found a new and great toy in the European Union where their advocacy echoes on sympathetic ears.
``Those who support a common EU foreign and security policy and the framing of a common defence have never answered a very simple question. They have never told us against whom we are supposed to be defending the European Union. Who is the enemy? Where is the power that is going to attack Europe? Surely that is the greatest `bogey man' of them all and not our justifiable argument that this Treaty erodes neutrality.''
``James Connolly, who has been mentioned here already in this debate, once said that ``the internationalism of the future will be based on the free federation of free peoples''.
What is being constructed under the Amsterdam Treaty is not a free federation but a giant superstate with no democratic accountability to its citizens.
``I want to deplore the patronising and insulting tone of a number of speakers who have treated with disdain the legitimate position of all those who oppose the Amsterdam Treaty. There have been attempts to smear and discredit those of us who are defending neutrality. We have been aligned with the extreme right in Europe but strangely Deputy De Rossa has had no difficulty in lining up with the traditional right in this State when he was in government. The long-time advocates of so-called democratic centralism have found a new and great toy in the European Union where their advocacy echoes on sympathetic ears.
``Those who support a common EU foreign and security policy and the framing of a common defence have never answered a very simple question. They have never told us against whom we are supposed to be defending the European Union. Who is the enemy? Where is the power that is going to attack Europe? Surely that is the greatest `bogey man' of them all and not our justifiable argument that this Treaty erodes neutrality.''