Ireland faces tough campaign to persuade voters to back EU reform treaty
DUBLIN, Ireland: Ireland's government is confident of persuading most voters to back the European Union's next treaty, the foreign minister said Monday after a poll indicated widespread indifference to the complex document.
Ireland could play a pivotal role in whether the treaty — the successor to the EU's abandoned constitution — is ratified on schedule, delayed or torpedoed. It is the only member of the 27-nation subjecting the treaty to a referendum, whereas others are requiring support only from their national parliaments.
"The coming referendum campaign cannot just be about the details of the treaty. It will also be about Ireland's future in Europe," Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said. "I am confident that the Irish people will reaffirm their commitment to Ireland's proud place at the heart of the union."
He spoke out after the survey, conducted by pollsters TNS mrbi for The Irish Times newspaper, said that just 25 percent of registered voters planned to vote in favor of ratifying the treaty, while 13 percent were opposed — and 62 percent said they were not sure or had no opinion.
EU member governments plan to sign the treaty at a Dec. 13 ceremony in Portugal, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency — one of many EU traditions due to be reformed if all members ratify the reform treaty.
Ireland's referendum, though not yet scheduled, is expected in May or June next year. Right-wing nationalists opposed to European integration, including France's Jean-Marie le Pen, have already expressed interest in campaigning here for a "no" vote.
The last EU treaty was delayed for years when Irish voters rejected it in a 2001 referendum. On that occasion, the Irish government mounted a second, successful referendum in 2003 after securing a new clause from the European Commission reaffirming Ireland's right to opt out of any military alliances.
Monday's poll, which involved interviewing 1,000 people in 100 locations across the Republic of Ireland, had an error margin of 3 percentage points.
The Irish Times contrasted the result with the last national poll on the subject in 2005, when a much greater number of people — 46 percent — said they would vote in favor of the EU's planned constitution, while 13 percent said they would vote "no."
"This poll reaffirms that there can be no room for complacency," Ahern said in a speech in Drogheda, a commuter town north of Dublin.
"This treaty is inevitably complex, but it is a good treaty, based firmly on what we negotiated in 2004," Ahern said, referring to Ireland's last EU presidency, when governments agreed on the text of the since-abandoned constitution.
The key goals of the constitution — which was abandoned after voters in France and the Netherlands rejected it in 2005 referendums — have largely been retained in the new treaty.
It seeks to strengthen EU leadership on the world stage and make it easier to take majority decisions in a bloc that has nearly doubled in size in the past three years.
The poll indicated that antipathy to the EU was running highest in Ireland's farming community, which has lost much of its income from EU subsidies in recent years.
Sinn Fein, Ireland's left-wing nationalist party opposed to EU integration, said the treaty threatened to undermine Ireland's ability to control its own taxation and state funding of services and businesses.
Sinn Fein's member of European Parliament, Mary Lou McDonald, said the widespread public disinterest in the treaty reflected the government's efforts "to bamboozle or bore citizens into submission when it comes to matters on Europe."
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/05/europe/EU-POL-Ireland-EU-Treaty.php
