Republican News · Thursday 10 October 2002

Yes camp spends over 1.5 million Euro on Nice

BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN

Two weeks to go to Nice referendum day and the Yes campaign has stepped up considerably, with ever more warnings about the dire consequences of a No vote. Not only have we Irish Business and Employers Organisation's ¤500,000 billboard campaign, we also have an increase in the bizarre and unsustainable arguments being made for a Yes vote on 19 October. In total it is estimated that over ¤1.53 million is being spent by the yes camp in the referendum campaign.

QUESTIONABLE O'SULLIVAN

Perhaps the most questionable intervention in the Nice campaign so far came last week from David O'Sullivan, the EU Commission's secretary-general and the highest ranking 26-County EU official.

O'Sullivan, speaking in Brussels said that " a lot is hanging on the Irish vote. If Nice is not ratified, we will go into a very difficult situation" and "people will not understand why Ireland has put Europe in this situation".

While claiming that he was "not telling people how to vote", O'Sullivan claimed that the failure of the EU to enlarge could provoke migration flows into the 26 Counties. He also maintained that reopening negotiations would be a Pandora's box, which could leave the 26 Counties worse off.

It seems a strange sort of EU where debate and decision making is accompanied with the threat that too much debate and negotiation is bad for you!

BYRNE'S DELAY

Also in the warning business was EU Commisioner David Byrne, who believes that those of us who have a problem with how the EU operates should "hold their fire".

"We will have a full opportunity to discuss all of these issues at the next intergovernmental conference," he said.

HUMANE CAPITALISM?

Throughout the Nice campaign, a range of advocates for a Yes vote have sought to gloss over any of the detail of the Treaty downplaying its importance. Environment minister Martin Cullen claimed that the treaty was nothing more than an agreed means of enlarging the EU. Cullen also claimed that the Nice Treaty will allow the EU to continue to promote its humane alternative to strident global capitalism advocated by the World Trade Organisation and World Bank.

Those of us who believed that the EU operates to much the same agenda as the WTO and IMF have been wondering was there some EU that Cullen was referring to?

DeROSSA's VETO

Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa is arguing that there is nothing to worry about in the Nice Treaty and that "it costs us nothing to vote yes".

DeRossa also took a unique step in terms of the Yes camp by actually discussing some of the detail of the treaty. DeRosa feels that the No campaign have been distorting the loss of veto envisaged in the Treaty.

This wasn't an issue, according to De Rossa, because it actually began under the Maastricht Treaty. Qualified majority voting allows the EU "to act" according to De Rossa while the use of veto "prevents progress".

YES?

Quote of the week from the Yes camp must go to Fine Gael MEP Joe McCartin. Attacking Sinn Féin, he accused them of leading a "confused No coalition of variable geometry and two faced thinking".

McCartin has also contradicted the views of many in the Yes camp by saying that even if there was a no vote "the legal experts will find a way to enlarge".

McCartin was run close in the bizarre camp by justice minister Michael McDowell, who believed that a no vote could lead to "winded government and a wounded Ireland". McDowell asked: "We got rid of the iron curtain, are we going to replace it with a Valley of Squinting Windows Irish Lace Curtain across Europe" Help.