@FutureTaoiseach actually it goes up to 3.7% (1 of 27) in the case of member state requirement on Double Majority voting (Article 9 C [16]).

The previous system combined the two requirements – member state and population.

The new system creates two separate checks to ensure both the people and the states of the union are protected.

If you want to combine the two in some sort of way (don’t know why you would want to only the highest one matters most), you could take the average of the two = 2.3%….

So even if you calculated it with out understanding the mechanisms, you’d still find that Ireland’s voting power increases under Lisbon Treaty.

On your comment re: National Parliaments

In your previous post you commented about vote weighting. If one in nine is needed to stop this legislation then doesn’t that raise our weight. Also it engrains responsibility for legislation with the National Parliament so ignorance can not be an excuse.

Nice a shambles? Funny how they weren’t telling us that in 2001/2. No sooner had Nice 2 passed, Romano Prodi was lambasting it. Small countries treatment is “fairer”? Get real. Our voting-strength on the Council of Ministers is going from 2.1% (7 out of 345 weighted votes) to 0.9%. To form a blocking minority, the no side on the Council of Ministers will need 4 countries with over 35% of the EU’s population between them. If 11 small countries got together they would still be in no position to breach that threshold, while 4 Big States would. This also has to be seen in a context where the veto is being abolished in 60 areas, including asylum and immigration, border-controls, judicial cooperation, policing, the powers of Europol and Eurojust, energy etc. Eaxh veto surrendered equates to reducing Ireland’s negotiating strength to 0.9% in that area. Now the Government is telling us we have an optout from Justice and Home Affairs, but Paragraph 7(iii) of the referendum-legislation) in fact states that the Oireacthas may surrender it by giving up the Protocol on the position of the UK and Ireland with respect to the European Area of Justice and Freedom. These are very sensitive areas in which to rely on the kindness of strangers for support to determine the law of the land in this small country. Too sensitive in my humble opinion.

“My earlier comments were in reference to the growing role of National Parliaments through the Lisbon Treaty, which will engrain a bit more accountability in the way the Irish use the EU system.”(Pat)

All these powers are consultative. If Brussels is serious about strengthening the role of national-parliaments in the EU decisionmaking process, then they ought to allow for binding veto-powers for a certain quota of national parliaments. As things stand in the Lisbon Treaty, 9 countries will have to agree in order to as much as ask the Commission to withdraw or amend proposed legislation. Indeed so weak is this role that it is questionable whether they can even be called “powers” at all with a straight face. I certainly couldn’t manage it.

“Really this is all about selling out our principles & autonomy for money, plain and simple. Most of the Celtic Tiger economy was funded by EU money, most of our farming sector has been atificially kept alive by massive agricultural grants etc. And yes, the establishment of the EU in it’s current form has done wonders about establishing a pan-european free market. However while the EU makes perfect sense as an economic and trading entity I do not think it should be allowed to extend into legislative and political areas. There is simply no need.”(Evert)

It’s actually worse than that, and I question the Gospel of the elites which is to inform us that the credit for the Celtic Tiger can be laid at the door of the EU. Where was the EU in the 1980′s when 600,000 left these shores? The Establishment want us to believe that the first 20 years of EU membership, when the country was blighted by mass-emigration and mass-unemployment was in no way the fault of the EU, but that the 12 year boom was. When the Government goes down that road, they undermine their credibility as those whose policies created the boom, while when the Opposition do so, they undermine public confidence in their capacity to change the situation. They can’t have it both ways.

My earlier comments were in reference to the growing role of National Parliaments through the Lisbon Treaty, which will engrain a bit more accountability in the way the Irish use the EU system.

Here is just a few of the new roles that National Parliaments will play in the EU decision making:

COMMON PROVISIONS
Article 3b [5] [new article, replacing ex Art. 5 EC]
3. … “The institutions of the Union shall apply the principle of subsidiarity as laid down in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. National Parliaments ensure compliance with the principle of subsidiarity in accordance with the procedure set out in that Protocol.”

PROVISIONS ON DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES
Article 8 C [12] [new article]
National Parliaments contribute actively to the good functioning of the Union:
(a) through being informed by the institutions of the Union and having draft legislative acts of the Union forwarded to them in accordance with the Protocol on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union;
(b) by seeing to it that the principle of subsidiarity is respected in accordance with the procedures provided for in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality;
(c) by taking part, within the framework of the area of freedom, security and justice, in the evaluation mechanisms for the implementation of the Union policies in that area, in accordance with Article 61 C [70] of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and through being involved in the political monitoring of Europol and the evaluation of Eurojust’s activities in accordance with Articles 69 G [88] and 69 D [85] of that Treaty;
(d) by taking part in the revision procedures of the Treaties, in accordance with Article 48 of this Treaty;
(e) by being notified of applications for accession to the Union, in accordance with Article 49 of this Treaty;
(f) by taking part in the inter-parliamentary cooperation between national Parliaments and with the European Parliament, in accordance with the Protocol on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union.

FINAL PROVISIONS
Article 48 [ex Art. 48 TEU, replaced]
3. If the European Council, after consulting the European Parliament and the Commission, adopts by a simple majority a decision in favour of examining the proposed amendments, the President of the European Council shall convene a Convention composed of representatives of the national Parliaments, of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States, of the European Parliament and of the Commission. The European Central Bank shall also be consulted in the case of institutional changes in the monetary area. The Convention shall examine the proposals for amendments and shall adopt by consensus a recommendation to a conference of representatives of the governments of the Member States as provided for in paragraph 4.
…
7. Where the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or Title V of this Treaty provides for the Council to act by unanimity in a given area or case, the European Council may adopt a decision authorising the Council to act by a qualified majority in that area or in that case. This subparagraph shall not apply to decisions with military implications or those in the area of defence.
Where the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides for legislative acts to be adopted by the Council in accordance with a special legislative procedure, the European Council may adopt a decision allowing for the adoption of such acts in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure.
Any initiative taken by the European Council on the basis of the first or the second subparagraph shall be notified to the national Parliaments. If a national Parliament makes known its opposition within six months of the date of such notification, the decision referred to in the first or the second subparagraph shall not be adopted. In the absence of opposition, the European Council may adopt the decision.
For the adoption of the decisions referred to in the first and second subparagraphs, the European Council shall act by unanimity after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, which shall be given by a majority of its component members.

AREA OF FREEDOM, SECURITY AND JUSTICE
Article 61 B [69] [new article]
National Parliaments ensure that the proposals and legislative initiatives submitted under Chapters 4 and 5 comply with the principle of subsidiarity, in accordance with the arrangements laid down by the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.

This continues throughout the Lisbon Treaty.

Evert.

“As regards the ban on transferring blanket empowerments or on transferring Kompetenz-Kompetenz, the provision (Artcle 352 TFEU) meets with (German) constitutional objections because the newly worded provision makes it possible to substantially amend Treaty foundations of the European Union without the mandatory participation of legislative bodies beyond the Member States’ executive powers (see on the delimitation of competences: Laeken Declaration on the Future of the European Union of 15 December 2001, Bulletin EU 12-2001, I.27 ). The duty to inform the national parliaments set out in Article 352.2 TFEU does not alter this; for the Commission need only draw the national Parliaments’ attention to a corresponding lawmaking proposal.”

An Irish Bedtime Story for all Nice Children and not so Maastricht Adults

http://ceolas.net/#eu7x

The Happy Family
Once upon a time there was a family treaty-ing themselves to a visit in Lisbon.
On the sunny day that it was they decided to go out together.
Everyone had to agree on what they would do.
“So”, said Daddy Brusselsprout “Let’s all go for a picnic!”
“No”, said Aunt Erin, “I don’t want to”.
Did they then think of something else, that they might indeed agree on?
Oh yes they did?
Oh no they didn’t!
Daddy Brusselsprout asked all the others anyway, isolating Erin, and then asked her if instead, she would like to go with them to
the park and eat out of a lunch basket….

Kids, we’ll finish this story tomorrow, and remember, in the EU yes means yes and no means yes as well!