February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — The campaign for the second referendum on the Nice Treaty on EU enlargement was stepped up this week as the Irish government launched an all-out effort to try to ensure victory.
The Dail is expected to resume today from its summer recess to pass enabling legislation to allow the vote to take place.
EU governments hope the referendum will be held before the next EU summit, on Oct. 25, which could mean a ballot date of Oct. 17 or 18. Foreign Minister Brian Cowen was giving nothing away last week when he met European colleagues at Elsinore in Denmark.
Both Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tanaiste Mary Harney warned of the consequences of another defeat when they launched the government’s 14-page information guide to the treaty on Monday.
It explains the major changes involved in the treaty and 1.4 million of the booklets will be delivered to every household in the country in coming weeks.
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“I urge everyone in the country to take the time to read it, and to make themselves aware of the facts,” Ahern said.
At the first full cabinet meeting after the summer, Ahern said the issue was a top priority for the government and instructed ministers to clear their diaries for campaigning.
While Ahern and Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen were prominent in the June 2001 campaign, which saw the treaty thrown out by a shock 54 percent, many ministers made little effort to sell the message.
Then Junior Minister Eamon O Cuiv actually voted against the treaty last year. Now a cabinet minister with responsibility for community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs, O Cuiv plans to vote yes this time following assurances on neutrality.
The opposition is also building up. One group, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, is raising money for a legal challenge under Article 6 of the 1937 constitution on the basis that the vote cannot be rerun.
“The Irish people in a fair free and democratic referendum rejected the Nice Treaty; they gave it their ‘final’ decision. PANA believes that the government has no legal right to ask the people to vote again on exactly the same Treaty,” chairman Roger Cole said.
For the National Platform, secretary Anthony Coughlan, is also describing the rerun vote as “undemocratic and constitutionally suspect.”
He is strongly pushing the main slogan of last year’s anti-campaign that a Yes vote will cost Ireland “money, power and influence” and be bad economically.
New anti-Nice posters around the country say the referendum is a “second chance to vote for being second class.”
The treaty has to be ratified by all 15 member states by the end of the year. Only Ireland requires a constitutional referendum.
It provides the necessary legal framework to allow ten Eastern European and Mediterranean countries to join the Community.
“We are at a historic crossroads in our national life,” Ahern said. “The forthcoming referendum will give the people an opportunity to demonstrate their belief in Europe and their wish to maintain Ireland’s rightful place at the heart of Europe.”
“Ireland’s position in Europe, the contribution of Europe to Ireland’s economic and social development and the enlargement of the Union, are all issues that are highly relevant to this Referendum.
“Europe has made a difference and is making a difference. Ireland’s experience in Europe has been overwhelmingly positive and I am confident that this will be reflected when the Irish people come out to vote in the Referendum in the autumn.”
Ahern said it was becoming clear that the second referendum debate would extend far beyond the issue of Nice itself.
“From an Irish perspective, it is clear that Europe offers a new model of globalization: one that goes far beyond free trade, constrains the naked use of economic and diplomatic power, is law-based and consensual.
“This has been particularly transformative for a country that for centuries experienced the sharp end of internationalization in several other guises. These included not only colonial conquest, but also untrammeled, market-driven, free trade in the 19th century, that resulted in deindustrialization and catastrophic migratory flows.”