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Lisbon Referendum Wording
Read more about: Lisbon Treaty 
The Lisbon treaty bill has been published, as Stephen revealed earlier, with the Oireachtas set to deal with in between 11.00am and 11.00pm on Wednesday (all stages). There is grumbling that it is hardly the way to kick off the campaign, which might be a fair point – as a full debate lets the yes side set the terms unlike the last time out. The wording of the amendment is below the fold
This is to be insterted after subsection 3 of section 4 of article 29 of Bunreacht na hEireann.
4° Ireland affirms its commitment to the European Union within
which the member states of that Union work together to promote peace, shared values and the well-being of their peoples.
5° The State may ratify the Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, signed at Lisbon on the 13th day of December 2007 (“Treaty of Lisbon”), and may be a member of the European Union established by virtue of that Treaty.
6° No provision of this Constitution invalidates laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the State, before, on or after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, that are necessitated by the obligations of membership of the European Union referred to in subsection 5° of this section or of the European Atomic Energy Community, or prevents laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by—
i the said European Union or the European Atomic Energy Community, or by institutions thereof,
ii the European Communities or European Union existing immediately before the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, or by institutions thereof, or
iii bodies competent under the treaties referred to in this section, from having the force of law in the State.
7° The State may exercise the options or discretions—
i to which Article 20 of the Treaty on European Union relating to enhanced cooperation applies,
ii under Protocol No. 19 on the Schengen acquis integrated
into the framework of the European Union annexed to that 25
treaty and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (formerly known as the Treaty establishing the European Community), and
iii under Protocol No. 21 on the position of the United
Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, 30
security and justice, so annexed, including the option that
the said Protocol No. 21 shall, in whole or in part, cease to
apply to the State, but any such exercise shall be subject to the prior approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas.
8° The State may agree to the decisions, regulations or other acts—
i under the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union authorising the Council
of the European Union to act other than by unanimity,
ii under those treaties authorising the adoption of the ordinary legislative procedure, and
iii under subparagraph (d) of Article 82.2, the third subparagraph of Article 83.1 and paragraphs 1 and 4 of Article 86 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, relating to the area of freedom, security and justice, but the agreement to any such decision, regulation or act shall be subject to the prior approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas.
9° The State shall not adopt a decision taken by the European
Council to establish a common defence pursuant to Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union where that common defence would include the State.
Obviously they have written what they legally felt needed to be written, but I think this wording brings out the difficulties of the constitution-based approach to ratification. Note that with this amendment, the constitution loses any readability to the average person. One vision for a constitution would be that it is a short overarching document that provides a statements of rights and governing framework that any reasonable person could follow. These paragraphs fail that test. No one will have a clue what they mean. That level of detail belongs in legislation, not a constitution. It shows a lack of faith in the Oireachtas (perhaps deserved) that the amendment can’t simply be worded to permit ratification subject to the passage of accompanying legislation by the Oireachtas which does not conflict with any existing article in the constitution.
Point taken P O’Neill, but it’s useful to remember that the whole process of the EU Constitution/treaty has been accompanied by confused (or unavailable) wordings, vital documents casually admitted by politicians never to have been read, wordings tacked onto other wordings making them almost meaningless (or at least very difficult to make sense of) and attempts to avoid debate about substance. This is really just more of the same, hiding the fact that the Treaty as put to the electorate last year is the same one.
Damien: nobody anywhere has said that this treaty is different to the one that was voted on last June. It has to be the same, only now we hae guarantees on various bits and bobs.
As for the readability of it. It’s a mess. But that’s how treaties are, especially when they refer back to other treaties, amending bits, adding bits, removing bits, etc.
I really regret that the idea of a constitution was dropped, because this was short and readable, and everything contained in one document.
The proposed amendment removes whatever Constitutional defence we have to a vast range of decisions made in Europe (section 6). Goodbye to independence.
I greatly fear that if Cowan doesn’t change his attitude Lisbon 2 will get another NO. He wouldn’t give any info re the lisbon referendum in the dail last week to the opposition though all these arrangements were in place and then re-appoints Martin to “head up the campaign”–he probably feels it will be a yes result out of fear and doesn’t want anyone else in on the action.It should be an all party campaign.If the people have to grit their teeth and vote yes they will get their revenge some other way.
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!