Republican News · Thursday 8 August 2002

Democracy the issue in Nice referendum - ó Snodaigh

Speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Donegal at the weekend, Sinn Féin European Affairs spokesperson Aengus ó Snodaigh said the government is attempting to bully the electorate into reversing their decision on the Treaty of Nice. He said democracy was the primary issue in the Nice 2 referendum.

"Many more people are beginning to see that we have ceded too much control of our affairs to EU institutions which are not accountable to the Irish people," said ó Snodaigh.

"Democracy is now the issue. The very holding of this referendum itself is a denial of the democratic decision made by the people last year. The message it sends is that the people of the smaller states do not have the right to say No.

"Does anyone here believe if Nice had been rejected by the German people or the French people that those governments would tell the rest of the EU to go ahead with ratification and they would get their people to change their minds? Of course not. Yet that's what has happened in this State in an EU that is supposedly still a partnership of equals where every State must agree or none agree.

"If the government and its allies succeed in bullying the electorate into voting 'Yes' this time it will be a huge setback for democracy in Ireland, in the EU and for the applicant countries. No to Nice means Yes to democracy."