Talking about the European Treaty, Sinn Féin wrote in a pamphlet:
The objective is a United States of Europe with a European army. Irish people will be compelled to fight whatever wars the European super-powers decide to wage. Neutrality will go and compulsory military service for our youth will be introduced.
This was not in reference to the Lisbon Treaty, though. This is a from a pamphlet from 1971 (PDF), in reference to the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which were to vote on our accession to the European Economic Community in 1972.
Sinn Féin has never been pro-EU, whatever its claims, this year or on other occasions. Each Treaty we have voted for was in Sinn Féin’s terms the last stand for Irish neutrality and independence. Unless we believe that they were right on every occasion since 1972, warning of militarization again in 1987, 1992, 1998 and 2002, why should we credit their fears on this occasion?
Their adamant opposition to the difficult to explain, given the European Union’s commitment to the peace process. In 2007, Bairbre De Brún said of the continuing benefits Northern Ireland has received from Europe,
I will be taking the opportunity to encourage the Executive to further develop their working relationship with the European Union. I will also highlight the importance of balanced regional development in the time ahead.
The EU has played an important contribution in underpinning the peace process and through various funding streams such as the Peace Programmes, Structural Funds, the Social Fund and funding for Rural Development. We must ensure that all potential funding streams are fully examined.
What is also interesting from the point of view of the peace process is how strongly Sinn Féin dismiss the legitimacy of the European Council Agreements of December 2008 and June 2009 guaranteeing Ireland’s right to a Commissioner and acknowledging Ireland’s right to decide laws on matters of taxation, education, the life of the unborn and neutrality. When it came to the Belfast Agreement, Sinn Féin celebrated the fact that this had the security of being lodged with the United Nations, yet when it comes to these guarantees, with the same international legal backing, they give them no similar standing.
Sinn Féin’s attitude towards Europe has been, since the 1970s, consistently both inconsistent paranoid. Each Treaty is a step towards the military industrial superstate, despite their acknowledgement of the benefits Ireland, particularly in the North, has received from the EU.
Tags: guarantees, neutrality, Sinn Fein
Why would Sinn Fein give the so called “international legal backing guarantees” similar standing?
The Irish guarantees have not yet been attached to the treaty.
The European Council Agreement comes into effect on the ratification of Lisbon, so they are as good as attached.
William before you make a statement get your facts right first.The European Council Agreement does not come into effect on the ratification of Lisbon.The guarantees are contained in a new international treaty which is legally binding on all 27member states of the EU. They are not part of the Lisbon Treaty. The Lisbon treaty itself is not changed by this new treaty. The European Council has agreed that protocols will be added to a later EU treaty to give full effect in EU law to the guarantees (this is likely to be a Treaty of Accession for a new member state – Croatia or Iceland).
The main difference between this international treaty and a protocol to an EU Treaty is that an international treaty, while binding on the signatories, does not have an enforcement mechanism. An EU treaty and any protocol to it becomes part of EU law and is enforceable by the European Court of Justice in the same way as other EU laws.
The new international treaty will come into force on the same day…
as the Treaty of Lisbon, if the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified by all the member states.
The solemn declaration is a political statement. It is not legally binding.
Please read the original post:
“When it came to the Belfast Agreement, Sinn Féin celebrated the fact that this had the security of being lodged with the United Nations, yet when it comes to these guarantees, WITH THE SAME INTERNATIONAL LEGAL BACKING (emphasis added), they give them no similar standing.”
Please read the original post:
They are not part of the Lisbon Treaty. The Lisbon treaty itself is not changed by this new treaty. The European Council has agreed that protocols will be added to a later EU treaty to give full effect in EU law to the guarantees (this is likely to be a TREATY OF ACCESSION (emphasis added) for a new member state – Croatia or Iceland)……….It is not legally binding.
It’s all very well for the minions of Mr Cox to talk about the past and other agreements that happened in the past but we are talking here about a future agreement that may or may not happen.The so called guarantees will not be attached to the lisbon treaty.They will be attached to a TREATY OF ACCESSION if other countrys join Europe.For other countrys to join Europe the Lisbon treaty has to be ratified by all 27 member states.
Warnings about militarisation from Sinn Fein? That’s rich. That’s laugh out loud funny.