Posts Tagged ‘declan ganley’

What Declan Ganley is not addressing

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Over the weekend, I looked back on the points Declan Ganley made at the launch of Libertas’s campaign two weeks ago.

As I watched this, I found that nearly every point he made could be disputed, if not refuted. Below is a critical analysis of his case.

He begins by stating that this is the same European Constitution that the French and the Dutch rejected, and that we rejected last year, ignoring the key symbolic changes made to the Constitutional text to remove the statelike trappings which were of such concern, and in the Irish case, it ignores the European Council of December 2008 to agreement to keep our Commissioner and the June 2009 agreement with the legally-binding guarantees.

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Posted in Euroskeptics | 10 Comments »

26 + 1 — Just a temporary little arrangement

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Declan Ganley has made a lot of what the current President of the European Council, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, about what solution the European Council would find to the problem of number of Commissioners if we failed to ratify the Lisbon Treaty. His answer reflects the reality the EU does try to find the most satisfactory solution to unsatisfactory situations. The current requirement, under the Nice Treaty rules, is that there is a maximum of 26 on the Commission, to come into effect at the next Commission, to be appointed this year. The Council agreement of December 2008, which could only come into effect with Lisbon, would reverse this, so that every country would have a Commissioner.

Mr Reinfeldt said that there could be 26 Commissioners, and that the position of High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, could be assigned to the 27th country. This is not a good enough solution, as the holder of that position should be the best qualified, and not necessarily be someone from the country who misses out on the Commissioner by lot in the rotation. It is not a place on the table of the College of Commissioners which was of such an issue to the Irish people. The High Representative would not have a vote at the table. This does not address our concerns.

But the real problem is that this is only a temporary solution. The EU will expand, and then such an arrangement will fall apart.

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Posted in Lisbon Myths | 1 Comment »

President of the Council

Friday, September 18th, 2009

One of Declan Ganley’s talking points on his return to the campaign was his objection to what he called the “unelected President of Europe”. The position is usually referred to as such by those critical of the new post. The position is in fact titled the President of the European Council. It replaces the rotating presidency held by the head of government of the each of the states for six months. Its job is to chair the meetings of the Council of Ministers.

The Lisbon Treaty will create a 2½-year term with the same function. It will be a more high-profile role, but they will have no policy agenda. There would be nothing for them to campaign on in any popular election that Mr Ganley desires. During the Convention which drafted the text of the Lisbon Treaty, Valéry Giscard D’Éstaing was describing what the role would in effect entail. The word “Président” is used much more in French than it would be in English, so for the only time, he used an English word, “c’est le mot anglais – chairman”.

But why this assumption that any government representative must have a direct democratic mandate? The Taoiseach could in Ganley’s terms be described as unelected, as could Britain’s Prime Minister or Germany’s Chancellor or most of the heads of government in Europe. Our representatives in the Dáil elect the Taoiseach, just as our representatives in Europe elect the Presidents of the Commission, of the Parliament, and as would be the case under Lisbon, of the Council of Ministers.

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Posted in Lies Exposed, Reforms | 10 Comments »

Cox on positive poll

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
Morning Ireland, 14th Spetember.
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Our own Pat Cox was asked to debate the positive poll numbers from the Sunday Business Post/Red C Poll, projecting a Yes vote of 62%, with Libertas founder Declan Ganley.

Despite Ganley’s no-show, Pat explains that he still has to deal with the false concerns of conscription and an EU army while out canvassing. Cox explains here how any of the military operations have been entirely within the mandate of the United Nations and Ireland’s own Triple Lock policy. In the interview Cox refers to missions that the EU has undertaken. Those curious for the full list can click on the picture below for more information.

EU Civilian Missions and Military Operations

Click on Picture for Larger Image

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Burke and European Reform

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Edmund Burke


In a previous blog, I looked at the improvements in the democratic character of the European Union which the Lisbon Treaty will introduce. Yet this week, we heard Declan Ganley again decrying the lack of democracy in the EU, ignoring these changes. He talks of the need for a 25-page constitutional document, overturning 52 years of negotiation by Treaty. This rejection of piecemeal change in favour of a fundamental overhaul deserves analysis in itself.

His 25-page document would turn the EU on an entirely new path, with very little relation in its institutions and structure to what exists at present. He expects us to ignore the 7 years of work which included a convention with parties across Europe and across the political spectrum, in government and in opposition, as well as contributions from civil society.

To recap on the changes Lisbon will introduce to make the workings more open and democratic: (more…)

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Posted in Reforms | 1 Comment »

Ganley does not trust Irish businesses

Monday, September 14th, 2009
Today with Pat Kenny, 14th September.
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In this morning’s Today with Pat Kenny, Declan Ganley dismissed out of hand those polled by IBEC, who stated by 86% that they believed a Yes vote was important or very important for economic recovery. Mr Ganley is perfectly entitled to side with the 14% of who did not see Lisbon as a vital part of the recovery, but to patronisingly call into question the ability of the 86% to understand the implications is surely a step too far in arrogance. He also continued to spread the accusation that there is a possibility of a common consolidated corporate tax base, despite the fact that our new guarantees ensure that there can be no threat to our corporate tax rates, which have proved so important in attracting firms to Ireland.

The opinions of this site are those of Ireland for Europe and not those of R.T.E.

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Posted in Economy, Euroskeptics | 2 Comments »