Untying the Irish knot

There finally seems to be light at the end of the tunnel insofar as the future of the Lisbon Treaty goes. Meeting in Brussels last Thursday and Friday, EU leaders, including our Prime Minister, agreed on a number of points to try and unblock the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, which was ratified by almost all EU countries but voted down in a referendum in Ireland last June.

The starting point for untying the knot was a reflection by the Irish government on the key reasons that led to the rejection of the Treaty - four key issues were identified.

Firstly, the fear of losing Ireland's influence in the EU because of the reduction in the number of members of the European Commission. Secondly, a fear of losing Ireland's autonomy in establishing its own tax rates. Thirdly, a fear of losing neutrality and, finally, a fear of unwarranted changes in values, notably with respect to the right to life and the family.

Whether these fears were founded is, of course, another matter.

I fully subscribe to the Irish view that each country should keep its commissioner. But, in all fairness, the principle of one commissioner per member state was already lost in the Nice Treaty back in 2000.

The Nice Treaty, in force, was approved in an Irish referendum, albeit at a second attempt, and already provides that, once the number of EU countries reaches 27 (which is now the case), the number of commissioners should be reduced to a number that is lower than the number of members. This means that, even without the Lisbon Treaty, the number of commissioners would still have been reduced.

Be that as it may, EU leaders have now agreed that the principle of one commissioner per member state will be retained indefinitely. This is good news not just for Ireland but also for other small countries, including Malta. Having a national as a commissioner goes a long way in ensuring that the people retain full trust in the workings of this important institution.

On the second objection, regarding taxation, my view is that fear was unfounded because the EU has no competence to set common tax rates. And this would not have changed with Lisbon. EU leaders nevertheless reaffirmed that nothing in the Treaty of Lisbon makes any change of any kind, for any member state, to the Union's competences on taxation.

On the third objection, relating to neutrality, again, fear was unfounded because EU membership does not jeopardise neutrality to the extent that a country wants to keep it. In Malta, we know something about this as we had obtained similar assurances.

In the event, EU leaders sought to reassure the Irish by spelling out that the Treaty of Lisbon does not prejudice the security and defence policy of member states, including Ireland's traditional policy of neutrality. So much for those in Malta who still fly, get red in the face when speaking about neutrality.

Finally, on family values, the Irish fears were, to my mind, also unfounded as the EU has no power to oblige its member states to introduce laws affecting values, whether on the right to life (abortion) or on family (divorce, same-sex marriages). The power to legislate on these issues remains squarely in the hands of national authorities, not the EU.

This same fear was also expressed in Malta prior to EU membership and this is why Malta had successfully negotiated a legally binding protocol, which protects our national legislation with regard to abortion.

In order to allay this fear, EU leaders agreed to guarantee that the provisions of the Irish Constitution in relation to the right to life, education and the family are not in any way affected.

Having obtained these guarantees, the Irish authorities agreed to seek ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon by the end of October next year. Clearly, this is likely to mean a second referendum in Ireland - the outcome of which is yet to be seen. However, it would be fair to assume that those who voted against the treaty last June for any of these four reasons would now no longer have any reason to oppose the treaty.

Should all go as planned, the Lisbon Treaty would be ready for entry into force by the end of next year.

That still leaves one point which is of particular interest to us, namely the number of seats in the European Parliament. Readers will recall that Malta had obtained a sixth seat in the Lisbon Treaty. But once the treaty will not be in force by next June, when the next European Parliament elections are due, we will still be electing five members, not six.

On this point, EU leaders agreed to increase the number of MEPs of the member states for which the number of MEPs was set to increase (there are 12 countries). This modification should enter into force, if possible, during the year 2010 on the understanding that the treaty itself would be in force by then.

Readers who would like to ask questions to be answered in this column can send an e-mail, identifying themselves, to contact@simonbusuttil.eu or through www.simonbusuttil.eu.

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.