PES Manifesto

Kouchner: "gigantic incomprehension"

Publié mardi 10 juin 2008 à 09h45
par Desmond O'Toole (vu 442 fois et 3 commentaires)

With three days to go to the referendum on Thursday Bernard Kouchner (French Foreign Minister) made an unwelcome intervention in the debate in Ireland claiming that if the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty we would face "... gigantic incomprehension" from our European partners and "... would pay a high price." Given M. Kouchner's incomprehension it is perhaps worth examining why the Irish might vote NO on Thursday and whether this might throw some light on why citizens across Europe are often lukewarm in their support for the EU and for our party.

The NO campaign in Ireland has run a thoroughly disreputable campaign of scare-stories and untruths about the EU and the Lisbon Treaty. Elements of the NO campaign have argued, for example, that the EU will force an end to Ireland's exclusive competence in taxation thus undermining our economy. Also that Irish farmers will lose heavily, that health, education and other public services will be privatised as a consequence of Lisbon, and even that prostitution, hard-drugs and euthanasia will be forced upon Ireland by Brussels. Perhaps the most bizzare claim has been the one made on the attached poster that Lisbon will give the European Commission the right to micro-chip all Irish babies at birth!

These are clearly baseless accusations designed to create fear and anxiety amongst Irish people about Europe. The really interesting question for us in the PES/PSE however is why are these stories given any attention at all? Does this say something about how unconnected a large minority of people feel to the European Union and its institutions? Is it because the discourse about Europe for most of the last decade has been about structures and processes instead of being about the concrete benefits that the EU can bring to all of its citizens? This, I feel, is the lesson that we need to learn from the Irish campaign when we are talking about citizens' perceptions of the EU and also the PES/PSE campaign for the next Euro-elections.

In a recent opinion poll "The Irish Times" newspaper reported growing support for the NO side in Ireland and described the three main reasons why people were considering voting NO. These were (a) a lack of knowledge about what the Lisbon Treaty was all about, (b) concerns about militarisation in the EU and the impact this could have on Irish neutrality, and (c) a worry that Irish sovereignty and identity could be diluted by this Treaty. It is not satisfactory that these concerns are simply described as a "gigantic incomprehension" as M. Kouchner did yesterday. It is vitally important that we are able to show to all of our citizens that Lisbon and the EU can deliver real economic, social, environmental and cultural benefits for all of our people. We must stop talking about institutions and processes and instead we must articulate the concerns and aspirations of our fellow Europeans for jobs and economic security, for a clean environment, for social justice, equality and solidarity and for cultured lives.

Against such tangible benefits that European citizens can touch, smell, taste and feel the No camp in Ireland and across Europe will have no convincing arguments.

See you tomorrow!

Tags: blogueur de la semaine, citoyens, traîté, UE