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EU Should Brace Itself for a Resounding Rejection

14/11/07

Support for a proposed EU treaty which will further damage Irish sovereignty has almost halved over the last two years according to a major poll in the Irish Times. Of those polled, just 25 per cent plan to vote yes in any referendum.

According to The Irish Times, a representative sample of 1,000 people in all 43 constituencies in the Twenty-Six County state took part in the survey.

In a comparable poll in March 2005, 46 per cent of people said they planned to vote yes for an EU constitutional treaty.

The original EU Constitutional Treaty was rehashed following the resounding rejection it received when put to the people of France and Holland.

However, virtually all the content of the two documents has remained the same, damaging EU member states’ independence, undermining workers’ rights and giving more power to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.

At this stage, the Twenty-Six Counties will be the only EU member state to have a referendum on the treaty, giving the population here a crucial say in the future direction of Europe.

A rejection at the ballot box would force the pro-‘free market’ bureaucrats within the EU back to the drawing board and send out a firm message that the people of Europe will not acquiesce in the further erosion of their rights.

In 2003, citizens in the Twenty-Six Counties voted to throw out the Nice Treaty, only for the Dublin government to rerun the referendum in order to get the result they desired.

éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson said the party will be increasingly active in the time ahead in encouraging a No vote in any referendum.

“The democratic deficit that already exists in Ireland is highly evident. The illegal occupation of the Six Counties, the partition of the country, the use of Shannon by the US military and the fact that Irish law is already largely subservient to European law is proof of this.

“The citizens of the Twenty-Six Counties will hopefully say enough is enough at the ballot box and begin a roll-back of the erosion of our national democracy.”

Brian continued: “The European Union began as a club for the rich and their interests and the last decade has seen an acceleration of that agenda.

“Virtually every manifesto that the EU has produced has been an attack on working people and their rights as citizens. Privatisation of public services, in particular, has been pioneered by the European Union.

“A rejection of this latest EU treaty would provide an opportunity for a radical, bottom-up reappraisal of how the people of Europe can cooperate in a spirit of solidarity for the betterment of all.”