[Previous posts on The Lisbon Treaty can be located here.]

Does anyone get a feeling of déjà vu? Didn’t we vote on the Lisbon Treaty before?

You may have heard campaigners argue that nothing in the Lisbon Treaty has changed since the vote in 2008. Not a comma. Not a single sentence, word or letter. And they’re absolutely correct.

The Treaty that will be put to the Irish people on 2nd October 2009 will be the very same one that was put to a vote in June 2008. The only thing that has changed in the intervening period is that a series of “guarantees” or “assurances” have been agreed between the member states of the European Union. So, what’s all that about?

Last time around: reasons for voting No

After the Treaty was rejected last year, two surveys examined the reasons why people voted “No”. There was a survey by Millward Brown IMS on behalf of the Irish government and a survey conducted by the EU agency Eurobaromter.

Both surveys yielded broadly similar results. In each case, of those surveyed who voted “No”, the majority stated that their reason for so voting was because they didn’t understand the Treaty. Whether you consider the fact that the majority of “No” voters last time around did so due to lack of information/ignorance is a good reason to hold this referendum again, is a matter of opinion. Personally, I think holding the referendum again is a good thing – so long, of course, as voters are given the information they lacked last time around.

As for the guarantees, they deal with the other concerns mentioned by “No” voters in the surveys.

The guarantees

The interesting thing about the guarantees agreed by the governments of the EU member states, is that they confirm what is already the case: that the Lisbon Treaty does not influence and will not affect any of the issues mentioned in them. The issues dealt with by the guarantees are: The right to life, family and education; taxation; security and defence; workers’ rights and social policy.

In addition, the European Council (the heads of state or government of each of the EU countries) has decided that the one-Commissioner-per-member-state status quo will remain.

One thing I need to say, however, is about the role of Commissioners in the EU. A Commisisoner in the EU is not an ambassador. In fact, they’re very much the opposite. (Indeed, the nearest thing to an ambassador in the EU are the Permanent Representations to the EU, which are diplomatic missions that all the EU member states have in Brussels. And don’t worry, they’re completely untouched by the Lisbon Treaty.)

A Commissioner (a member of the European Commission, that is) has the function of “upholding” the Treaties upon which the EU is founded. Each Commisisoner has a particular area they are responsible for – so, for example, Charlie McCreevy is Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services – and the Commissioner’s job is to ensure that member states of the EU are complying with EU rules for that area.

A simple example would be ensuring that Ireland doesn’t automatically favour Irish businesses, but that it allows competition between businesses in Ireland, regardless of where in the EU they are based.

Had the Treaty been approved at the last referendum, there would have been fewer Commissioners than member states, but they would have rotated in such a way as to ensure that there would have been a Commissioner from each member state every few years.

With the decision of the European Council, however, every member state including Ireland gets to “keep their Commissioner.” (Except, of course, that it’s not “our” Commissioner. It’s just a Commissioner who happens to be from Ireland. They are legally bound to be completely independent in their actions, and to uphold and defend the Treaties which establish and form the basis of the functions of the European Union. But sure, some people won’t be told..!)

Therefore, in order to maintain one-Commissioner-per-member-state, the Lisbon Treaty must be passed in this next referendum.

Also, the guarantees will be legally binding, every bit as much as the Lisbon Treaty will be, if there is a “Yes” vote this time.

The Lisbon Treaty itself

Sweet holy Jesus, but it’s boring. I’m not even half way through the feckin’ thing, and I feel like I’ve been reading it for 156 million years.

Nevertheless! – one thing is certain. The Lisbon Treaty is an amending treaty. That is to say, it’s a document which inserts amendments into the existing Treaties upon which the EU is founded and functions. So, it’s all “Subparagraph blah is amended by bleh,” and “New article yadda is inserted after I poke my eyes out.”

The Treaties of the EU are two: one is the founding treaty, and it outlines the overall aims and the purpose of the EU (as it is now called) existing in the first place. It’s important to understand that the EU was originally formed immediately after World War II, when millions of Jews, gypsies, political prisoners, gays, lesbians and anyone else the Nazis and their allies despised had been genocidally murdered. (Did you know that the word genocide had to be invented by prosecutors after WWII?)

Out of that, six countries decided to form an economic union which meant that they would be so economically dependent on one another, war and genocide such as had happened could never be a possibility again. (In the 1950s, the union was based on co-operation in the coal and steel industries – how we’ve come along in leaps and bounds!)

The second Treaty that is amended by Lisbon is a lot longer and is more detailed. It deals with how the EU functions in order to achieve its objectives. So, there are general rules about the internal market, freedom of movement within the EU, the euro currency, and certain procedures are set out for times when the EU will need to decide on further rules and regulations on these matters.

From what I’ve read so far, a lot of the Lisbon Treaty is tidying up and housekeeping: gramatical corrections, re-arranging the order of some paragraphs and articles. So far, so fricking boring. And totally inoffensive.

Next time, I shall try to deal with some of the specific changes introduced by Lisbon, perhaps including some of the more contentious ones. Stay tuned!

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