Why I’m voting YES.

Finally, I get around to writing the first blessay specifically for the blog (as opposed to reprinting essays or articles).  I’ve been motivated to do so by today’s Irish Times/MRBI poll on the Lisbon Treaty, showing the NO side ahead by five points.

There is one week to go before polling on 12th June, and there are a few things I’d like to say as we face the final run-up.  Firstly, I want to outline how I decided to vote YES.  Secondly, most of the arguments used by the NO side are spurious, and amount to scaremongering of the highest order, and I want to show the emptiness of some of their arguments.  And finally, I want to look at some of the positives of voting YES to the Lisbon Treaty.

So, how did I reach my decision?  Well, it was tricky, as my political party are campaigning in favour of the Treaty, while my trade union are campaigning against!  So, in the end, it had to come down to old-fashioned research to develop my own opinion in light of all the arguments being raised in the public domain.  One very valuable resource in making my decision was the Referdum Commission website on the Lisbon Treaty, which I think has done a fine job on this referendum.  In particular, their detail on the actual wording of the constitutional amendment here, while their handbook here has provided a nice high-level view of things.  The other invaluable source has been the Institute of International and European Affairs, who have produced the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) as it will be if amended by the Lisbon Treaty.  It can be read here, and gives you a complete view of how things will be if the treaty gets a YES vote.  Those were my primary research sources, while debates on forums such as p45, polly and the internal Labour boards have also been informative.  And all this research lead me to decide to vote YES.

There has finally been a rush in the last week to debunk some of the arguments coming from the NO side.  I want to try and consolidate some of that debunking below:

• Lisbon Treaty will lead to higher corporation tax rates.  This is simply untrue.  Corporation tax is a form of direct taxation, while the EU only has power in areas of indirect taxation (such as VAT).  Neither the Lisbon Treaty, nor any of it’s predecessors, could affect our corporation tax rate.  If you don’t believe me, perhaps you’ll believe the Institute of Chartered Accountants, who made this point when endorsing the treaty, as did the Irish Taxation Institute, while also endorsing the treaty.
• Passing the Lisbon Treaty will allow the introduction of abortion in Ireland.  As much as I wish this were true, it’s not.  There is nothing in the treaty which will at all affect the protections we received under Maastricht to retain complete sovereignty in the area of abortion legislation.  And if you don’t believe me on this one, you might believe the Catholic Bishops of Ireland (who would surely have something to say if it were to be possible), who published a document broadly favourable to Lisbon (though it stopped short of an endorsement).  The Referendum Commission also clarified this matter in a press release on Wednesday.
• The Lisbon Treaty will give up our veto on WTO agreements.  All WTO agreements to this point have included agreements related to FDI and intellectual property, cultural and audiovisual services or social, education and health services.  Any changes to all of these areas will still require unanimity at a European level, ensuring that Ireland will retain a veto over WTO agreements in future.  And if you don’t believe me on this one, this is another area which the Referendum Commission sought to clarify on Wednesday (Chairman’s speech on these issues can be found here).
• Ireland will lose power by “losing our commissioner”. This is one of the favourite arguments made by Libertas (if I may go on a slight tangent here, it’s very curious how that organisation have changed in recent weeks, moving from being a super-neo-liberal grouping, to one focussed on socially conservative stances and scaremongering – thanks in large part no doubt to the recruitment of Caroline Simon [formerly of William Binchy's Pro-Life Campaign]).  The argument however, is nonsensical.  First and foremost, European Commissioners are appointed to act in the European interest, and not on behalf of their own states.  In fact, they’re explicitly prohibited from doing so.  And secondly, Libertas are ignoring the fact that the larger countries such as Germany, UK and France, are also giving up their commissioner for 5 out of every 15 years.  Ireland’s power is not being reduced in any way by this step, but Europe can’t simply continue expanding the number of commissioners as the EU expands.  This step is about reducing ‘jobs for the boys’, and not about reducing our national strength.

So, why am I in favour?  Enough about how I reached my decision, and enough about the nonsense being peddled by the NO side, I want to take a little time to explain what is contained in the Lisbon Treaty that I am in favour of.

• Lisbon is good for the gays.  As a queer man, I always take a particular interest in equality provisions in any new legislation, and in this area, the Lisbon Treaty stands up to scrutiny very well (leading groups such as Labour LGBT to come out in favour of the treaty).  As part of the treaty, the EU will finally accede to the European Convention on Human Rights, while Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights specifically forbids discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.  While unfortunately, it appears that it will not be possible to use this to challenge the Section 37 issue with the Employment Equality Act, it remains a substantial reason for me to support the Lisbon Treaty.
• Lisbon is good for young people.  The Treaty permits the establishment (and it’s a shame that this issue has been utterly ignored by the media) of European Voluntary Aid Corp, allowing young people to get actively involved in helping with humanitarian crises.  More pressingly, at a time of 15% youth unemployment across Europe, the Lisbon Treaty commits Europe to striving for full employment for all.  While there is a new legal obligation on the Commission to consult with organisations representing young people before issuing policy initiatives likely to affect young people.  These are good reasons for young people to vote yes, and as a young man, they have influenced my decision.
• Lisbon is good for women. Article 23 of the Charter reaffirms the EU commitment to forbid all discrimination on the basis of gender and allows for positive discrimination in combating sexism.  As I’m not a woman, you may not believe me on this point.  In which case, you could read what feminists such as Senator Ivana Bacik, Deputy Joan Burton or The Women’s Alliance for Europe have to say on the matter.

These are the three biggest reasons that affected my decision to vote in favour of the Lisbon Treaty.  That’s not to say they’re the only ones.  I also think the Treaty is sensible in how it tidies up a lot of issues (such as having too many commissioners at present), I think it represents a fair compromise between the competing interests in Europe and I think it represents a potentially great deal for workers.

There’s an attitude I’ve heard murmerings about, that if everyone is in agreement on this, there must be something wrong with it.  That’s the stupidest argument I’ve heard, and should be immediately discounted.  No matter what your political leanings, the Lisbon Treaty makes sense.  That is why it has been endorsed by both IBEC (Employer’s Confederation) and ICTU (Congress of Trade Unions).  That’s why it has been endorsed by Labour, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Progressive Democrats and the Green politicians.  That’s why it has been endorsed by ICAI (Chartered Accountants), ITI (Irish Taxation Institute), IFA (Irish Farmer’s Association), ICMSA (Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association), Alliance for Europe (a civil society pro-Europe grouping) and even the Cedar Lounge Revolution.

So, that’s my view, and that’s why I’m voting yes.  You may agree with my analysis, and I certainly hope you do.  You may not, and that’s OK too.  But don’t listen to the nonsense about how complicated it is (it’s legislation, are you really expecting it to be a nail-biting page-turner?) – there’s plenty of information available on it at the sources I’ve linked to above (and others).  That does bring to mind some interesting conversations I’ve had recently about the Crotty and McKenna judgements, but that’s a topic for another day…..