How the Other Half Campaigns

international | rights, freedoms and repression | feature

Wednesday April 16, 2008 23:33

by liz c - CAEUC

Report from Dublin Castle- Merkel on Monday.

Don't look too closely...

A through the looking glass encounter into how campaigns are run by people with money, political machinery, suits and plush red carpeting. There were very few members of the public but It's well worth going along. The food is great. Posh sandwiches and raspberry chocolates.

I found the whole thing very interesting though many of our representatives ambled off before Angela answered their questions. Maybe they knew the answers already.

It's possible to reserve a seat on www.forumoneurope.ie Manuel Barosso Eu Commissioner is speaking this thurs. At 11am I think.

When Angela Merkel addressed the National Forum on Europe on Mon April 14th every party except Fianna Fail, expressed reservations about the Lisbon Treaty. Interestingly none of the coverage on RTE that I saw showed a single question that she was asked.

It looks like the parties who are pushing for a yes vote very semi-publicly aired their doubts to cover themselves if the treaty is passed knowing that people would be unhapppy with the consequences. All of them appeared fairly well informed on the downsides of the treaty considering their assurances to the public that this is an 'enabling' treaty that does nothing but make the running of the EU smoother.

Bottom line is the questions were generally confrontational exploring issues of workers rights, neutrality, loss of sovereignty, climate change, neo-liberal policies, erosion of democracy and privatization of services. To all of this there is one answer that to the heads of the EU trumps everythng else : China. Merkel made it explicit that a strong EU entity with 500 million people is needed to stand up to China. People have asked why would all of the heads of state of Europe enter into a treaty that is a nightmare in terms of job security, the environment, and public services and will cause a massive backlash? The answer is an unwavering commitment to growth at all costs and a commercial race with China, kind of like the Cold War. Angela says Europe needs to be a world power. But what kind of world power do the Eu leaders have in mind? So far it looks very much like a US model and that is not a route that most people in the EU who have had basic services, free healthcare and free education, were likely to vote for, economically, socially or politically. Therefore it needed to be legislated for them. For their own good.

Bertie told Angela she's wonderful and had no questions for her. He did say 'the public hungers for clarity' on the treaty but didn't claim they'd get that from him. He also said 'Everyone recognises the need for climate change.' Potential EU President in-waiting if he can only get a yes vote...

This is a paraphrase but is as close as I can get to what she said. Angela gave a short speech about the wonderful shared values of tolerance and democracy that the Eu has and how much better that is than the DDR, former East Germany, where she was from and how good it is that the Berlin Wall fell and doesn't that mean the EU and democracy are inextricably linked and isn't the fall of the wall a powerful symbol. Most importantly she twice compared 'European political unification' with the re-unification of Germany. Only Germany is a federal state and a post Lisbon Treaty EU would be .. a federal state.

The PDs bizarrely said that people in Ireland 'don'w want to be part of a federal Europe' despite voting for a federal Europe.
Angela clarified this point by saying 'Irish people don't need to worry about a superstate because all of the underpinnings of a supertstate were removed from the EU Constitution!' Interesting admission that they were ever there .She also said 'The people of Europe want strong institutions including in times of conflict.' This is from the leader who has publicly called for a European army. Interestingly none of these statements nor any of the comments made by treaty opponents seem to have made it into commercial news coverage.

A speaker from the 'special observation pillar' of organizations that can speak but not decide anything, I don't know the name of his organization) pointed out that setting land aside for biofuels is causing spiralling food prices, especially grain. ( there are currently food riots in Haiti and elsewhere. Grain prices have recently increased about fourfold). Angela said that this is partly due to investor interest in commodities, read soeculation and even better blamed the rising food prices on the fact that people in developing countries like India who only used to be able to afford 1 meal a day are now eating 2 thereby doubling demand! The selfishness of it!

Fine Gael and the PDs asked about tax harmonization. 1 level of corporation tax across Europe would lose Ireland jobs, as a 12% tax rate is one of our chief attractions. Angela said tax harmonization would have to be unanimous though there's a lot of dispute about this. This is the main economic argument aginst the treaty. Fine Gael asked about the effects on Ireland of losing our EU Commissioner for 2 out of every 3 years. She said something about smaller countries getting into groups to block larger countries decisions, so I guess this would make us the equivalent of the developing countries at the WTO, except they all technically have voting rights.Alan Dukes has clearly been reading Indymedia as he claimed that the Treaty would bring 'more bottom-up democracy, with no obvious sense of irony.

Labour's Joe Costello and PANA's Roger Cole asked about Irish neutrality in the context of enhanced EU security co-operation and how the Lisbon Agenda ( neo-liberal economic growth) might conflict with lowering carbon emissions and how did Angela see the Euro contributing to financial stability. (globally, I think). The answers were don't worry about it it would have to be unanimous, yes it conflicts but hey these things are hard to balance and yes, respectively.

Mary-Lou McDonald of Sinn Fein pointed out that the treaty has no democratic value after a period of reflection we got a re-packaged EU Constitution which ignores the previous French and Dutch No votes on the EU Constitution. Merkel admits the 2 documents are substantially the same. She talked about the undemining of public services and weakening of workers' rights. She said Ireland needs to keep an independent foreign policy for neutrality, not an EU common foreign policy and pointed out the EUs failure to act on Palestine as a sign of what an EU common foreign policy would look like. Angela didn't answer any of these points as far as my notes say.

The Greens pointed out that the treaty allows for competencies to be either centralized or devolved downwards. they didn't suggest that downward devolution was likely. they said a simple document with public input would be nice. Angela made no reply.

Joe Higgins talked abut the race to the bottom that the treaty facilitates pointing out the recent European Court of Justice judgements disallowing collective bargaining and allowing the undercutting of national minimum wages. Angela is opposed to a national minimum wage in Germany and can't hold a referendum there despite 70% of Germans wanting one because Germany is not familiar with referendums and the federal system with weighted voting makes referenda difficult cos no mechanism for deciding if the 2 chambers cast different votes.. No direct voice for the people then. As for minimum wage the federal states decide for themselves and when they decide 2.80 an hour that's up to them. He more or less called Angela 'a headbanger.'

The ICTU speaker ( I didn't catch his name) gave Angela an easier ride than the PDs. He said he has some questions around recent European Court judgements but that he'd leave them to Barroso this Thurs. He then asked nothing and talked about how wonderful the values of the EU are. Trade unions are looking at virtual annihilation of influence as it is, made easier if this treaty goes though. Can someone from ICTU explain this one? I don't know much about ICTU but if this is what social partnership does you guys need to get out fast.

Patricia McKenna, Green rebel, said there is nothing new in the treaty to combat climate change The treaty undermines German and national sovereignty and it is subject to a constitutional challenge in Germany including by a member of Angela's part. No response to these.

So there you have it. A fine afternoon of debate in a bubble, entirely uncovered by the attendant press, that will have to struggle to get to the public in time for a referendum on a treaty almost nobody understands. In the meantime there's good debate on the treaty on local stations like Dublin City Fm and Near FM. The info will get out regardless.