LISBON A CITIZENS' TREATY, GILMORE TELLS FORUM
Eamon Gilmore, the Leader of the Labour Party in Ireland, recently gave a speech to his country's National Forum on Europe on the subject of Labour and the Lisbon Reform Treaty.
I welcome this opportunity to speak to the National Forum on Europe. The Forum has made an important contribution to the national debate on Ireland's place in the European Union and on the future of the EU itself.
I should also pay tribute to the leadership which you, Chairman, have given to the Forum and to your widely appreciated ability to ensure fairness and balance in the Forum's discussions, debates and publications.
The establishment of this Forum was a good Labour Party idea and you have turned it into a reality of which we can all be proud.
I want in this address to set out clearly why I and the Labour Party support the Lisbon Reform Treaty, why we will be campaigning for a Yes vote in this year's referendum and why we believe all members of the Irish Labour Movement and the broader Irish Left should do the same.
I should say at the outset that the Labour Party has a particular set of values and principles that we bring to bear when we judge the success or failure of these Treaty negotiations.
My party was founded to strive for equality, social and economic justice, community solidarity and freedom. It seeks to have these values reflected in the laws and institutions of Ireland and in Ireland's relationship with the wider world.
We believe in the right of all citizens to participate fully in society and to develop their personal and social identity in an Ireland and a Europe that are truly democratic, fair and inclusive.
Through our membership of the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International, we are part of the international socialist movement working for equality and to empower citizens, consumers and workers in a world in which global economic forces tend to dominate over the individual and the local community.
Labour believes in a democracy in which all people can participate in decision-making on an equal basis wherever their interests are affected. And we stand for a dynamic, positive role for the State working through responsive and accountable public institutions at local, national, and international levels.
For Labour and for our colleagues in sister parties throughout Europe, the purpose and practice of the European Union must relate to the fundamental needs of its peoples and citizens in terms of jobs, security and balanced overall development, within a democratic and participative framework. It must also relate to and respond effectively to the great world challenges of peace, justice, sustainable development and combating climate change, hunger and poverty.
It is clear to us that the Market does not of itself deliver either justice or efficiency. In order to serve society the Market requires to be governed by rules and standards which respect citizens' wider concerns and rights, such as workers' rights, environmental protection, consumers' rights, access to essential public services, solidarity between the regions of the Union and between the Union and the world.
The kind of Europe for which we strive is clear:
· A Europe based on democratic principles and respect for human rights and the rule of law.
· A Europe strong enough to overcome common problems, in particular those related to the phenomenon of globalisation.
· A Europe which respects and protects national, cultural and language diversity.
· A Europe committed to economic progress, social justice, full employment and progressive environmental policies.
· A Europe of solidarity between its peoples, regions and nations and of solidarity with the peoples of the developing world.
· A Europe at peace with the rest of the world.
We have assessed the Lisbon Reform Treaty against these criteria and we believe it passes with flying colours. That is why we are committed to a strong and focused Labour Party campaign for a Yes vote in the referendum on the Lisbon Reform Treaty and we do so on the firm foundation of the decision of Labour's most recent National Conference in Wexford.
Our campaign will be a positive one – we will not seek to scare people about the consequences of a No vote, though those consequences would be significant. We will campaign for a Yes vote because the Lisbon Reform Treaty is a major step forward in building the kind of Europe that labour espouses.
A Yes vote is a vote for a better European Union and that is in Ireland's deepest long-term national interest, in terms of what matters to people – opportunity, prosperity, basic rights, social cohesion, stability, international security, addressing the great environmental and energy challenges, combating international crime and working to end global poverty.
I believe that ratification of the Lisbon Reform Treaty is not alone in Ireland's clear national interest but that, taken as a whole, it takes the European Union forward on a path which is very much in line with Labour's longstanding principles and aspirations.
The Convention text emerged from a process which involved not just the participants in the formal membership – in Ireland's case members were drawn from Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party – but also the social partners and wider civil society through extensive consultation.
The Labour Party, working as part of Ireland's national delegation – and with our sister parties in the Party of European Socialists – played a significant and positive role in the European Convention which drafted the Constitutional Treaty. This reflects our firm support for Ireland's full participation in the European Union and our recognition that EU membership has been crucial in the modernisation and transformation of Ireland's economy and society.
What Ireland today needs within the European Union may be summed up in four propositions:
· The EU must have absolute clarity on its values and objectives, with particular emphasis on the social, environmental and developmental aspects of policy;
· The EU must, for the foreseeable future, have genuine institutional stability and an end to the sterile years of introspection;
· The EU must have competences, capabilities and resources appropriate to the extraordinary nature of its 21st Century agenda;
· The EU must concentrate on bringing effective joint actions to bear on that agenda which is of critical concern to every Member State, not least to Ireland.
Let us be clear about what the Treaty provides – what it really means.
Under the terms of the opening articles, the progressive values upon which the Union will be based are close to Labour's most cherished values: respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights including those of minorities, pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, equality between women and men, and solidarity.
The goals of the EU are set down clearly, in line with Labour's aims: promoting peace and well-being; offering citizens an area of freedom, security and justice; working for sustainable development; a social market economy, full employment and social progress.
The Union will promote environmental protection, the combating of social exclusion and discrimination, social justice and protection, gender equality, inter-generational solidarity, and the rights of the child. It will further promote balanced development and cohesion, respect cultural and linguistic diversity and protect Europe's cultural heritage.
And, in its relations with the wider world, the objectives are peace, security, sustainable development, solidarity and mutual respect among people, free and fair trade, the eradication of poverty, the promotion of human rights, the strict observance and the development of the rule of law and respect for the United Nations Charter.
Those are no mere rhetorical expressions. Throughout the text of the Treaty there is a chain or logical sequence connecting all its elements so that values are translated into objectives; objectives are realised by the conferral of competences, which are then given operational effect in agreed joint policies, implemented by a range of instruments and programmes involving the allocation of resources.
The Treaty re-asserts the principle of conferral, which provides that the Union shall act “only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States”.
And the use of Union competences is governed by the important principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Individual national identity and essential state functions are fully respected. Those who fear a European superstate, or the groundwork for incremental growth towards a superstate, should have their fears put to rest. Europe can act only within the competences conferred on it by this Treaty; there can be no “creeping federalism”.
I want to concentrate on four major issues close to Labour's heart and on the extent to which the Lisbon Reform Treaty has advanced our agenda. Those issues are: a more democratic Europe; a social Europe; sustainable development; and engagement with the world. And, in doing so, I want to take issue with one assertion made to this Forum last week by the Taoiseach, when he said –
“Let me stress at the outset, however, that the Reform Treaty is not a revolutionary document. It contains no great innovation of the stature of the Single Market that was introduced by the Single European Single Act, or the Euro provided for by the Maastrict Treaty”.
This is not a forum for party political point-scoring but I want to disagree with that analysis – an analysis that seems to me to be based on a reductionist view of the European project purely in terms of its economic benefits and implications.
I believe that the major and significant progress achieved under each of the headings I have outlined gives the Lisbon Reform Treaty a status equal in importance to any of its predecessors. It has the potential significantly to improve the lives of ordinary people throughout both Europe and the world.
While it may be in the necessary interests of governments in other member States to downplay the significance of this Treaty, in order to refuse the calls for referendums in those states, we have no such need in this country and we can rightly celebrate the achievements of the Lisbon Reform Treaty.
This is not an economist's treaty or a central banker's treaty or a Eurocrat's treaty. It is a citizen's treaty. More than any previous one, this is the European Treaty which advances the rights of citizens in the European Union and which progresses the social agenda in Europe.
A More Democratic Europe
The Treaty includes a range of provisions which enhance democratic accountability, move the Union's institutions closer to the citizen and make them more accessible.
There are new proposals establishing permanent structures to involve civil society and the churches in dialogue.
There is the Citizens' Initiative whereby one million citizens from 15 or more states can initiate policies.
There is the extension of co-decision, giving the European Parliament more say in the decision-making and budgetary system.
But most importantly there is a new role for National Parliaments in the legislative process. All EU legislative proposals must be forwarded to National Parliaments at the same time as they are sent to the EU Parliament and to the Council of Ministers from the Commission.
National Parliaments may offer their own considered opinions to the Commission on whether an individual proposal complies with the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality. If one-third of National Parliaments are dissatisfied with a legislative measure it must be reviewed by the Commission. If one half are dissatisfied the measure is referred to the European Parliament and Council for a final decision on compatibility with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Finally, those national parliaments which still dissent from the Commission's proposals can appeal to the European Court of Justice.
The election of the Commission President by the European Parliament will take into account the results of the European Parliament elections. The European Commission will be reduced in size in the interests of efficiency but its membership will rotate on the basis of strict equality between Member States irrespective of size; its task is to ensure that the interests of all states are taken into account.
The voting system for the Council will continue to favour smaller countries. The system will continue in practice to be based on a consensus approach. Key policy areas, such as those relating to taxation and defence will remain subject to unanimity.
It is obvious that a major challenge still exists in bridging the gap between Europe and its citizens. But the reality is that the European Union is, in any Member State, as transparent, as responsive and as accountable as the institutions of that Member State require it to be. Insofar as there is a democratic deficit it is as much – in fact, much more – at the national as at the European level.
My essential point is this: it is all very well for an EU treaty to confer enhanced powers on National Parliaments but it will only make a real difference if we, in our National Parliament, do things differently. It is for us members of the National Parliament to reform our ways of working in order to accommodate and make best use of the additional competences being given us.
The Oireachtas EU Scrutiny Committee was another Labour Party proposal and it is working well, on a genuinely non-confrontational, cross-party basis. It needs to be better resourced but those resources will, I understand, be forthcoming.
But what we need is a way of getting the work of this and the sectoral committees out of the committee rooms and onto the floor of the Dáil and Seanad. That is the only place where decisions can be taken on foot of committee recommendations.
Specifically, we need to abandon the division of parliamentary business between Government and Opposition. If these new proposals are to make any effective difference, then we need Dáil and Seanad time to be divided in future between Government time, Opposition time and Committee time, so that the reports and recommendations of Committees can be moved, debated and voted on in a structured and timely way.
And, if the powers given to National Parliaments working together are to have any real meaning, then we need effective channels of communication between Parliaments and their committees throughout the Union.
It is all too easy to blame ‘Brussels' or ‘faceless bureaucrats' for situations which are the responsibility of national politicians and national parliaments. Too much EU legislation is adopted at national level with minimum public awareness and minimum scrutiny. Too much EU legislation is criticised by national politicians who have themselves taken part in the negotiation and adoption of these provisions. In effect, they are prepared to disown their own role, and their own word, within the EU in order to gain short-term advantage.
A Social Europe
The Treaty embodies provisions of real importance to Labour in the field of social policy.
It contains a “social clause” whereby the social issues (promotion of a high level of employment, adequate social protection, fight against social exclusion, and so on) must be taken into account when defining and implementing all policies.
The Treaty makes legal provision for social dialogue and recognition of the social partners. The Charter of Fundamental Rights also contains a section on solidarity.
That Charter is given binding legal status, which means that all decisions by EU institutions and agencies and by national administrations when implementing EU policies must respect the standards enshrined in the Charter.
The social rights listed in the Charter represent an important step forward for European workers and this has been acknowledged by the European trade union movement. Those rights are listed under the headings of dignity, freedom equality, solidarity, citizens' rights, including workers' rights, and justice. It is probably the most extensive and succinct international statement of human rights and citizens' entitlements ever to be given legal form.
And it is worth remembering that the EU as a body will also accede to the European Convention on Human Rights.
In addition to the Charter, the Treaty also provides a clear legal basis for European laws to protect public services. A detailed and binding Protocol deals with this critical issue, covering the nature of such services, the importance of quality, affordability, equal treatment and universal access and the competence of national governments in this connection.
The European Trade Union Congress insisted that seven key social issues originally covered by the Constitutional Treaty would have to be retained in the new Treaty:
· the values and principles set out in the Constitutional Treaty;
· references to full employment and the social market economy;
· recognition of the role of the social partners;
· the Charter of Fundamental Rights, with legal force;
· the citizens' initiative;
· the legal base for services of general interest; and
· the ‘Social Clause' providing that key social issues, including the commitment to combat social exclusion, must be taken into account in all EU policies.
The European labour movement is happy that all of these key issues are preserved in the text of the Lisbon Reform Treaty.
A Sustainable Europe
The environment is central to a true sense of community, locally and globally. Without clean water, air and safe food there is no life. All human interaction with the environment must be sustainable, so that we can meet the needs of today without compromising the rights of future generations.
There is now widespread agreement that the European Union in 2008 faces an urgent, historic agenda of environmental policy challenges requiring focused political attention and a genuine effort to engage public opinion and will. That agenda includes the escalating Climate Change crisis, the Energy Supply and Energy Security challenge and the related environmental challenges of water and natural resources.
The Lisbon Reform Treaty provides a framework within which the Union can address this agenda with some hope of progress and success. For example, a specific reference to the need to combat Climate Change in measures at international level has been inserted in the existing Environment section. A new Title on Energy is included which specifies the need for solidarity between Member States in implementing policy in this area. And the new institutional provisions should permit more efficient decision-making and policy implementation with full involvement of the European Parliament.
The Treaty states that one of the Union's objectives is to work for the sustainable development of Europe based, in particular, on a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. This will ensure the proper functioning of the energy market, in particular energy supply and the promotion of energy efficiency and energy saving, and the development of new and renewable forms of energy.
Europe and the World
The major issues which emerged over the years since its foundation come together in the extraordinary agenda facing today's European Union as a world player. The end of the Cold War, the emergence of the US as the one superpower, the unending Middle East crisis, the changing shape of the globalised world economy, the recognition of the development needs of much of humankind and, above all the environmental and energy crises – all of these add up to the reality of 2008.
We must recognise that reality and the fundamental truth that its individual elements can only be confronted and dealt with by nations and peoples working together. A reformed EU must be equipped to deal with:
· globalisation of the economic system with its social implications;
· the World Development agenda:
· global poverty;
· trade, aid and regional development;
· the worldwide phenomenon of Migration with its associated economic, social and legal ramifications;
· continuing, and emerging security issues in the Middle East and elsewhere;
· United Nations reform;
· further enlargement;
· neighbourhood policy;
· trans-national crime and trafficking; and
· the international promotion of human rights.
The Treaty recognises the importance of this agenda and the need for a joined-up and effective approach.
On aid, to take just one example, the Treaty provides the necessary basis for EU action on world development issues with a firm commitment to work for the eradication of global poverty. The Treaty introduces for the first time a specific legal basis for humanitarian aid. The Treaty clearly states that the reduction and the eradication of poverty is the primary objective of the Union's development cooperation policy. This goal must be respected when the Union implements policies likely to affect developing countries. This implies also that development policy is a policy in its own right, and not simply an adjunct of the common foreign and security policy.
The Treaty makes provision for a more effective implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and a new European Security and Defence Policy. This means that the Union's role in international crisis prevention and management will be significantly enhanced. But it is important to stress that the key decisions on CFSP and Security and Defence matters will continue to be taken by unanimity, while Ireland's status of military neutrality is.specifically protected and our domestic ‘triple lock' guarantee is fully maintained.
The specific policy stance of the EU neutrals – Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Cyprus and Malta – is covered by wording introduced into the 1992 Maastricht Treaty at Ireland's insistence and repeated in each Treaty revision since then.
There is much misleading and ill-informed comment in circulation in relation to the Union's policies and practices in the Security and Defence field. The factual Treaty situation is clear.
European Union operations under CFSP and ESDP are delimited by the Treaty statements of objectives and by the terms of the Petersburg Tasks which are closely aligned to the relevant chapters of the UN Charter. Nothing in this Treaty provides for conscription or for Ireland being forced into wars or imperialist adventures.
The present position, where the EU is involved in essential peace-keeping in Bosnia and is about to commit a major force of peace-keepers to Chad in support of the UN/African Union missions in Darfur, represents the reality. The parallel civilian and humanitarian missions in several European and world trouble spots from the Balkans and Caucasus to Gaza and East Timor demonstrate the Union's continuing commitment to peace, security and stability.
Our concentration should be on the responsibilities which we share with our EU partners in contributing to the search for peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world and especially in our own continent. Ireland's history of peace-keeping and of constant, professional input to multilateral diplomatic efforts for peace and stability will be maintained and expanded by our involvement in the EU's policies and programmes.
Moving back from the particular to the general, I believe we should have no doubt but that the decision of the Irish people in this referendum is a serious matter. Failure to ratify would thrust the EU as a whole back into the introspection of the so-called “period of reflection”, when what is clearly needed is an end, for the foreseeable future, to the institutional debates which have dragged on for almost a decade, confusing and alienating public opinion.
In the forthcoming referendum debate there will be a vigorous exchange of views and much divergence of opinion. I will lead the Labour Party campaign on the basis of what the Lisbon Reform Treaty actually says and on its manifestly beneficial implications for this country and for the EU as a whole. We will insist that the debate here in Ireland is about Ireland's response to the Treaty text and about Ireland's future place in, and contribution to, the European Union. We will reject any suggestion that the Irish referendum is about what happened three years ago in France or the Netherlands, or about the constitutional arrangements of any other Member State.
There is a great responsibility on the shoulders of all the political parties – in and out of government – to make the European debate truly relevant and thus to challenge national media to give deeper, balanced and more accessible coverage. And it must be accepted that mature debate on Europe requires a genuine demystification of much of the language which we use in our discussion of EU issues.
I regret that the lengthy process which has given us the present Treaty has got rid of the Convention's elegant and accessible single text and much of its clearer terminology, which would have contributed significantly to the accessibility of the debate.
Nonetheless I must conclude by stating firmly my conviction that what we have before us is the best outcome that is possible in today's circumstances. It sums up the collective political will of the leadership of 27 European democracies which share an understanding of the demands of early 21st Century political, economic, social and cultural life.
With our sister parties in the PES we believe that the Lisbon Reform Treaty contains the significant democratic and social policy gains which we achieved in the European Convention and which enjoy the support of the European trade union movement. To reject it would leave us with the existing treaties which we regard as inadequate for the progressive policy agenda we wish to pursue for Ireland and for Europe.
In conclusion, from the beginning, Labour was clear that the policy priorities of the enlarged Union must take account of major questions such as –
· Incorporating the Charter of Fundamental Rights in a constitutionalised Treaty to underpin essential rights of workers and citizens;
· Consolidating the European Social Model, including the social principles of universal public services and social security which are intrinsic to the notion of European citizenship;
· Ensuring that economic, social and employment policies are treated as an integrated whole, ensuring that they have an equality of status with monetary union and treated as inter-dependant aspects of a truly human society.
· Guaranteeing equality between men and women in all areas covered by the Union;
· Strengthening the role of the social partners and civil society in the Union's decision-making processes.
I believe the Lisbon Reform Treaty provides the improvements that are needed to ensure that an EU of 27, and eventually more, democracies works more effectively, with greater legitimacy and with a stronger social engagement. It brings to an end a long, frustrating period of institutional navel-gazing. It will mean a Europe that is better able to meet the challenges facing us in today's globalising world.
We are dealing with the realities of the 21st Century and of the European project which Irish voters overwhelmingly chose to join in 1972. We must approach those realities with determination and courage. By voting Yes in the coming referendum Ireland will reaffirm its place at the heart of the European Union and its belief in its own future and that of all its people. |
