Prof. Schachtschneider on Lisbon treaty

Speech by the leading German legal EU-expert Prof. Dr. Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider on the Lisbon Treaty held in Vienna, Austria, on 8th Septmber 2009.

Eve of All-Ireland rally held in Dublin

A REPUBLICAN rally against Lisbon 2 was the theme of this year's eve of the All-Ireland football final rally in Dublin.

The rally began at the Garden of Remembrance and paraded to the GPO led by a Na Fianna Éireann colour party and a lone piper. The piper was held by tge RUC earlier that day. Des Dalton, vice-president Sinn Féin Poblachtach chaired the proceedings.

He introduced Pádraig Garvey from Cahersiveen in Kerry who said that "each year the rally highlights the continuing plight of the Irish people under British occupation and the resulting violence, harassment and sectarianism."

Speech by Pádraig Garvey . . .

Fergal Moore from Lurgan and Monaghan was the second speaker of the day.

Speech by Fergal Moore . . .

The proceedings closed with the piper playing of Amharan na bhFiann.

'No to new Federal-style European Union!'

Speech by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, held in Dublin and Galway, September 2009.

"UNDER Lisbon, a new EU would be created which would be a supranational Federation, in effect a United States of Europe," said Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President of Republican Sinn Féin on September 21 in Dublin and September 22 in Galway.

"This is the central issue which is being avoided by the 'Yes' advocates. They are pursuing other matters and ignoring this vital point.

"If people grasped that core of the whole question they would be much more likely to vote 'No' to Lisbon. In summary Lisbon means more power to Brussels and less power in Ireland.

"In addition, it would radically shift control of the EU towards the Big States by basing its law-making primarily on population size. While Germany doubled her voting power to 17.1the 26-County State is halved to a mere 0.8%.

"The right to veto harmful measures in more than 50 areas of policy will be lost. The arrangements proposed add up to a power grab by the Big States and the Brussels bureaucracy. Further political centralisation is what it is all about.

"The right, as at present, to propose and decide who will be a Commissioner will be replaced with a right to make suggestions only for the incoming Commission President and the Big States to decide. This move from a bottom-up to a top-down appointment process has also been ignored by the 'Yes' side of this debate.

"In military matters, Lisbon would require more to be spent on equipment and this could see deep cuts in funds for education, health care, social welfare, pensions and the like. As members of an EU federal state, countries would have to go to the aid of any other member state under attack. This is surely a military alliance like NATO and contrary to the idea of neutrality.

"Then there has been the attack on workers' rights by the EU Courts of Justice rulings in the Laval and related judgements. These put the competition rules of the EU market above the right of trade unions to enforce pay standards higher than the minimum for migrant workers.

"Under Lisbon these judgements would become part of EU case law and institutionalise them. Also Lisbon would give the EU full control of immigration policy.

"To sum up, Lisbon would turn the 26 Counties into a regional or provincial state within this new Federal-style European Union, with the EU's Constitution and laws having legal primacy over the Constitution and laws of the state. That alone should motivate people to vote 'No' on October 2."

Pádraig Garvey on Lisbon treaty

Speech by Pádraig Garvey at the Eve of All-Ireland rally, Dublin 2009.

Pádraig Garvey from Cahersiveen in Kerry said that "each year the rally highlights the continuing plight of the Irish people under British occupation and the resulting violence, harassment and sectarianism."

He spoke on the "uneven distribution of wealth and the poverty, hardship and crime that flows from that.

"But this year there is a new focus - the re-running of the EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty.

"The people of the 26-County State rejected that Treaty but that decision was not accepted by the EU or more importantly by the leaders of the Free State. Instead of going to Brussels to represent the decision of the people they went to promise a rerun of the same Treaty. Not one word of last years Treaty has been changed despite what the establishment would have us believe. Assurances and guarantees have been given we are told but these assurances and guarantees are not legally binding and in respect to the "workers rights and social services" it is merely a political statement.

"The Free State will now keep their commissioner. Last time around we were told that they needed to cut the number of commissioners to streamline the EU. And the commissioner did nothing for the country they were from as they worked for the EU.
What advantage is a commissioner to us so. Even this is a grudging concession as the Free State can only 'make suggestions' as to who the commissioner would be. It is the commission president who will decide.

"The EU is attempting to give itself more powers. Already 80% of Free State law is subservient to EU law. This treaty takes the power to make laws in 49 policy areas and abolishes the national veto in 30 policy areas.

"It introduces a clause to give the Council of Ministers the right to extend its powers and it removes the requirement for any further extension of EU power to be voted on by referendum."

"The treaty will allow the EU to go to the UN and speak for the 27 countries of the EU. It will also allow it to negotiate and ratify internationally binding agreements.

"The new post of 'President of the European Council' and 'high representative for foreign affairs and security policy' is in effect a president and minister for foreign affairs of the EU. The people of EU will not vote for them but will be bound by them.
This is a serious erosion of the sovereignty of any nation state. The loss of national currency and control over interest rates has already weakened sovereignty. Now the loyalty of the citizen is no longer to the state, their country (or at least part of it) but to the higher body of the EU.

"In these times of recession the Free State is tied to borrowing cap by the European Central Bank of 3% of GOP. With so much money going to the banks, where will the money for social services come from.

"Make no mistake this treaty is a major leap towards a Unites States of Europe.
Lisbon allows a massive shift of power within the EU. As voting power is based on population size the big states get more power. This has been the case up to now but the smaller states held a disproportionate number of votes. So as they may have some say, this will change as the bigger states get more power, ie Germany's vote will go from 8% to 17%.

"The EU is vamping up its military capabilities. Lisbon calls on all states to 'progressively improve their military capabilities'. If the EU respects our neutrality, why in the grip of a recession must a neutral country increase spending on military hardware. The idea that you can be neutral while part of a military alliance is false. Much is made of the triple lock mechanism that relates to the deployment of Free State troops. But as we see with Free State troops in Afghanistan on a NATO mission this can be got around.

"We are told that Ireland needs the EU for jobs; that we need to pass the treaty to help us out of the financial crisis. If we insist on our decisions made through democratic free will then we will be shunned by the other countries."

Pádraig pointed out that this was not the first time the wishes of the people in referendum in the 26-Counties were ignored.

He went on to say: "To bring stability to Ireland we need to build the economy with the natural resources of the land and talents of the people, not give away our gas and allow our seas be plundered and now only fished by other EU boats."

Pádraig concluded: "Republican Sinn Féin sees the only way forward for the people of Ireland and the world is through a community of free nations with respect for each others boundaries and decisions. A nation that defends democracy, sovereignty and neutrality.

"Vote NO to Lisbon"

Speech by Fergal Moore at the Eve of All-Ireland Rally, Dublin 2009.

We assemble today in O'Connell Street as Ireland is gripped by a period of economic instability the likes of which we have not seen for many a generation. James Connolly, who fought here, and Big Jim Larkin, whose statue stands behind me, would surely tell us 'we told you so'. Capitalism, that they spent their lives struggling against is shown up for the greedy, putrid and parasitical system that it is.

The gombeen men of Fianna Fáil have really outdone themselves this time. In order to facilitate their buddies who used to patronise the big tent in Galway they have promised 54 billion of tax payers money to cover their dodgy loans. This at a time when the health service is in tatters, schools are run down and there are over 400,000 on the dole in the 26 Counties alone. Republicans and economists had for years been telling Fianna Fáil that the property bubble could not last and that when it burst it would be the ordinary working people who would feel it the worst. We were labelled doom merchants and nay sayers. Bertie Ahern, the ultimate spiv, said that those who predicted the end of the bubble would be better off killing themselves. His hurtful remarks are all the more callous now as mortgage holders face years of negative equity, rising interest rates and unemployment.

It is no surprise that Fianna Fáil would rip off the Irish people to help the already super rich. This is the crowd who gave away our natural gas to Shell, who oversaw a system whereby land was rezoned willy nilly resulting in some areas having enough land zoned for residential purposes to do them for the next 40 or more years of predicted growth. This is the crowd who selected as ceann comhairle of Leinster House a man who spent 350,000 in three and a half years on expenses including flights and luxury hotels for his wife. Oblivious to the anger in the country they have foisted this NAMA on the workers to pay for the gambling debts of their big business friends.

The workers of Ireland do not need NAMA just as the workers do not need to be indebted for the equivalent of 10,000 euro for every man, woman and child in the country. What the workers need is justice. What the workers need is a guillotine here in O'Connell Street where they can watch the bloated, corrupt and thieving capitalists who have brought us to this go to their due reward.

Of course Fianna Fáil are not the only guilty ones in this. For over two years now they have been aided and abetted in their corruption and incompetence by the Greens. The Greens who have broken faith with their electorate time and again. Remember how before the election in 2007 they opposed the motorway through Tara and yet as soon as they got into power they showed themselves to be as power hungry and corrupt as the rest of them.

The lot of them have got to go. We are not talking about a few bad apples here, the whole barrel is spoiled. We must begin again with a new Ireland. The Irish people must be given the opportunity to create an Ireland where a man's worth is judged not by how much land his father left him or what politician he knows. Republican Sinn Fein, through our Éire Nua policy, envisage an Ireland free from cronyism, with local accountable democracy and where the worker is valued and not treated as some sort of commodity as he is in the EU.

Slowly the EU is turning from what was once a trading agreement between states into a super state to serve capitalist interests. The Lisbon Treaty, which was previously known as the EU Constitution, moves more power from Dublin and into Brussels. With weighted voting and the removal of the veto the larger states will be able to force their own desires on the rest. In effect we will be subservient to them. Germany, France, Britain, Spain and Italy are all former imperial powers who are well used to bossing other nations around. The Ancien Régime are the architects of the Lisbon Treaty and it serves their interests. Under Lisbon the EU will have a president unelected by the people and tellingly it will have a foreign minister pursuing a single foreign policy. At the same time member states are required to increase military spending. This at a time when there are soup kitchens in Dublin.

We in Republican Sinn Féin believe that Ireland should be free from foreign control whether that be control of the Six Counties by Westminster or control of the 26 by Brussels. The solution to our economic woes and our democratic deficit lies in the policy documents of Republican Sinn Féin; Éire Nua and Saol Nua. Following a British withdrawal from the 6 Counties the Irish people must decide for themselves how we will be governed. Republican Sinn Féin propose a federal Ireland based on the Republican and Socialist principles laid out in the Proclamation of 1916 and the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil of 1919. The gombeen men will be out of business and we will be masters of our own destinies free from foreign domination.

A No vote in the Lisbon referendum will ensure that those who have brought us to the brink of economic ruin will get the kicking that they deserve. Those who cheer loudest for Lisbon are the same ones who dreamed up NAMA. A strong No to Lisbon is as good as a No to Nama for we will not even get a chance to vote on that. I urge you, here in O'Connell Street where heroes fought and died for Irish Freedom, vote No to Lisbon.

An Phoblacht Abú.

Scandal of 2 Euro workers covered up

THE scandal of Turkish workers being paid only two euro an hour for working on the Ennis Bypass has been covered up by the 26 County Administration in advance of the second vote on the Lisbon Treaty, a spokesman for Republican Sinn Fein said today.

Paddy Kenneally from Crusheen said that the findings of a court hearing into the scandal had never been made public.

The fact is the Turkish workers were only being paid two euro an hour and if this type of conduct is tolerated it spells a disastrous future for Irish construction workers, he said.

The company behind these appalling rates of pay was based in both Turkey and Germany and it flouted every rule and regulation of Irish construction employment.

The fact is there are hundreds of thousands of Turkish workers willing to work for low wages in the EU and this aspect of the current Lisbon Treaty is being hushed up and pushed under the carpet.

The question that must be asked is why the outcome of the case taken against the Turkish company by SIPTU was never made public by the courts?

Workers in Ireland deserve decent rates of pay and this Lisbon Treaty will adversely affect the rights of all workers by lowering standards and rates of pay. In order to protect Irish workers this Treaty must be rejected.

Ó Bradaigh warns of shift of power in EU

MICHAEL O'REGAN

REPUBLICAN SINN FÉIN: THE LISBON Treaty would lead to the creation of a “united states of Europe’’, Republican Sinn Féin president Ruairí Ó Bradaigh warned yesterday.

He accused those on the Yes side of ignoring the issue.

“If people grasped the core of the whole question, they would be much more likely to vote No to Lisbon.’’ Lisbon meant more power to Brussels and less power to Ireland.

Mr Ó Bradaigh was speaking at a Dublin press conference where his party called for a No vote.

He claimed the treaty would radically shift control of the EU towards the big states by basing its law-making primarily on population size. “The right to veto harmful measures in more than 50 areas of policy will be lost. The arrangements proposed add up to a power-grab by the big states and the Brussels bureaucracy.’’

Prof K A Schachtschneider of the University of Nuremberg in Germany claimed the treaty was incompatible with the Irish Constitution. He said the referendum provided the Irish people with a last chance to defend freedom, equality, fraternity, democracy, the rule of law and social welfare provisions for all people in the EU.

“Without an Irish No, all people in Europe face exploitation, war and injustice. The Irish have the opportunity to save human dignity in Europe.’’

© 2009 The Irish Times

No to NAMA and No to Lisbon

REPUBLICAN Sinn Féin strongly reject the introduction of NAMA and once again reject the Lisbon Treaty.

In introducing NAMA and forcing the Lisbon referendum upon the people, again shows that Fianna Fáil are not in control, this indeed points to the fact that it is Brussels that point the way forward for the 26 counties.

The administration in Leinster house headed by Fianna Fáil, are ramming legislation down the throats of the people, by doing so, they clearly show that they have no contempt or compassion for those suffering the most.

Republican Sinn Féin call for the rejection of the Lisbon treaty, by way of a second NO vote, and we send a clear message to Fianna Fáil that we reject the introduction of NAMA.

Des Dalton: Vote No to Lisbon Treaty

Speech held by Des Dalton, Vice President of Republican Sinn Féin, on September 8th in Vienna, Austria. The public meeting entitled The Second Lisbon Referendum in Ireland was attended by about 200 people.

Having already rejected the Lisbon Treaty last year the people of Ireland are being forced to vote a second time. Rather than accept the vote of the people in the 2008 Referendum the Irish government instead chose to ignore that vote. At the bidding of the power brokers of Brussels they are forcing a second referendum – as they did with the Nice Treaty in 2003 – effectively they have sided with the EU political elite in opposition to their own people. The Lisbon Treaty was not renegotiated and consequently has not been altered in any way.

Their campaign is based on fear and disinformation all with the purpose of stampeding the people into a militarised United States of Europe.
The mainstream media are willing agents in this manufacturing of consent –to paraphrase US academic and campaigner Noam Chomsky – with little pretence of balance in providing space to those calling for a No vote.

There are six key points which are at the core of the argument for the rejection of Lisbon:


1. Leading Irish campaigner for a No vote Anthony Coughlan sums up clearly what the Lisbon Treaty means in practical terms: “The Lisbon provisions that would abolishes the old European Community which we (Ireland) joined in 1973, establishes a legally new European Union in the constitutional form of a supranational Federation and makes us all real citizens of this new state-like entity”.

The Lisbon Treaty will make people citizens of a Federal European Union. In cases of conflict Irish people’s rights and duties as citizens would be subordinate to their rights and duties of the new EU super-state with all its implications.

2. The Irish people are being asked to sign up to an EU state in which laws would be made primarily on the basis of population size. For instance Germany’s vote in making laws would increase from 8% to 17% of the total EU vote whilst that of the 26-County state would fall from 2% to 0.8%. This means that Germany would have 20 times the vote of the 26 Counties whilst Britain, France and Italy would have 15 times the vote.

3. The right of the 26-County state to “propose” its nominee as a member of the EU Commission – the body which has the monopoly of proposing all EU laws –would be replaced by the right to make “suggestions” only. The final decision would be made by the President of the EU Commission who would be appointed by the bigger states. This means replacing a bottom-up process of appointment by a top-down one.

4. The Lisbon Treaty would abolish the national veto which Ireland has at present in some 30 new policy areas by handing over to the EU power to make laws binding on Irish people in areas such as public services, policing, crime, justice, public health transport etc. The Lisbon Treaty is a charter for the neo-liberal economics which have caused the economic collapse we experience today. This will have serious consequences in two important aspects. Firstly in changes to the economic and monetary policy. The Lisbon Treaty along with provisions in existing treaties would substantially reduce the democratic control which citizens could have over measures taken to reduce budget deficits and borrowing requirements. In Ireland at present the government are at present sacrificing public services and the living standards of working people to save the banks. However public pressure and the mobilisation of people can change the government and the economic measures it takes.

For instance using major investment in public projects to halt the growth of unemployment and create new jobs. A neo-liberal EU Commission could use the powers given to it under Lisbon to force states to comply with its budgetary requirements. It would punish governments who would invest in education, health services and public transport. Instead ordinary people would pay for a capitalist crisis through cuts in services and living standards while endorsing – as the EU Commission already has – multi-billion bailouts for banks and speculators.

Regarding workers rights the European Court of Justice in a number of important judgements have sets the needs and priorities of the free markets above those of the rights pay and conditions of working people.

Two significant judgements were the Laval and Ruffert cases where the ECJ ruled that companies employing workers from EU state in another were entitled to pay significantly lower wages to its workers than those negotiated and agreed in the host state. It based this on the primacy under EU law of the free movement of goods, labour and capital. Despite claims that the ‘Charter of Fundamental Rights’ has been promoted as protecting the rights of workers. However Article 52 - the wording of which is based on the case law of the ECJ -of the Charter makes it clear that those rights –including the right to strike- “shall be exercised under the conditions and within the limits” of the Treaty of European Union and Community Treaties. In short there would be no new rights for workers under Lisbon but the rights promised would be subject to and inferior to the rights of employers and contractors to exploit their workers for lower pay and inferior conditions of employment.

5. Despite what we are told the sky will not come down on Ireland if we reject Lisbon for a second time. If there is a second No vote the Czech Republic and Poland will not ratify the Treaty. It may well be that Germany itself will not have ratified it by the time of the referendum.


6. Even without Lisbon EU miltarisation is a priority, the European Defence Agency is in reality a vehicle for the European arms industry to influence EU policy and
budgets. Representatives of two of Europe’s biggest arms manufacturers BAE and Thales were represented alongside senior politicians in a working group that drafted the security and defence clauses of the EU constitution.

The Lisbon Treaty enhances the political importance of the EDA. Article 28 mandates the agency to take “any useful measure” it views as necessary to “strengthen the industrial and technological base” of European defence. The agency is also given the job of helping EU governments to bolster the arms industry by monitoring their observance of commitments under Lisbon to increased spending on military equipment. In the Treaty these are referred to as “capability commitments.

As reported in the Sunday Business Post on August 16 the EU’s foreign policy think-tank the European Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) states that the EU needs “to build a twin robust civilian and military capacity” over the next decade. The EU’s High Representative – defacto Foreign Minister post-Lisbon – Javier Solana adds his weight to this “We must have the personnel and capabilities –both civilian and military-to back up these political ambitions”, Solana writes.

For what, we are entitled to ask, is this increased military force to be used? Is it to fight the “resource wars of the 21st Century” which the then President of the EU Commission Jacque Delors predicted in the early 1990s. To be used by the developed and rich north against the developing and poor south for possession of their natural resources.


This campaign is part and parcel of the struggle against imperialism. Just as we oppose British imperialism in Ireland we must also oppose the new imperialism of the EU. The purpose of the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution is to build an undemocratic, militarised and ultra-capitalist super-state. The Irish economist the late Raymond Crotty described the EU project as imperialism by other means.

Democracy works best in terms of accountability and involvement by the people in the democratic process at national level – Republican Sinn Fein advocates even further decentralisation right down to regional and local level. Bringing the power of decision making down to this level brings democracy alive and relevant to people.

Not only do we believe in democracy within nations but also between them.
As Irish Republicans we are also internationalists committed to building a community of free nations. In opposing the Lisbon Treaty we are not only upholding national democracy but also the ideal of international democracy and true solidarity between nations in defence of human rights.

Republican Sinn Féin takes as our touchstone the democratic principles of the 1916 Proclamation and we view the idea of a militarised and undemocratic EU States of Europe as a subversion of those principles. Stand up for the rights of workers, oppose militarisation and imperialism vote No to Lisbon II.

RSF rally for No to Lisbon

REPUBLICAN SINN FÉIN is holding its annual Eve of All-Ireland Rally on Saturday September 19 at the GPO in Dublin’s O’Connell St. The theme of the rally this year is “Republicans say No to Lisbon”. Speakers are Ard Chomhairle member Fergal Moore, Co Monaghan and Padraig Garvey, Co Kerry. The rally will be chaired by Republican Sinn Féin Vice President Des Dalton, Co Kildare.

Those taking part will parade from the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square at 12 noon, led by a colour party from Na Fianna Eireann.

The rally is taking place at the earlier time so as to allow Republican Sinn Féin to participate in the ‘Anti-NAMA’ march at 1pm.

Des Dalton on Lisbon Treaty

Speech by Des Dalton, Vice President of Republican Sinn Féin, on the Lisbon Referendum, held in Vienna (Austria) on Sep. 8th, 2009.

RSF Vice-President speaks in Vienna

REPUBLICAN Sinn Féin Vice-President Des Dalton travelled to the Austrian capital Vienna on September 8 where he explained the reasons behind the campaign for a No vote in the forthcoming second Irish referendum on Lisbon to a public meeting and to the Austrian media. Des Dalton also gave an interview to the Austrian national daily newspaper Die Presse which was carried on September 9.

The meeting was organised by a grassroots coalition opposed to the Lisbon Treaty and the EU project on a range of issues from political democracy to environmental issues and neutrality.

Des Dalton

In his address to the large meeting held in Kolpinghaus Alsergrund Des Dalton Des Dalton said that the 26-County administration was forcing a second referendum on the Irish people: “At the bidding of the power brokers of Brussels they are forcing a second referendum – as they did with the Nice Treaty in 2003 – effectively they have sided with the EU political elite in opposition to their own people. The Lisbon Treaty was not renegotiated and consequently has not been altered in any way.” He said

Des Dalton continued: “Their campaign is based on fear and disinformation all with the purpose of stampeding the people into a militarised United States of Europe.”

Des Dalton pointed out that it was the neo-liberal economics championed by the EU which caused the present world economic collapse. Des Dalton said that at present the 26-County administration was sacrificing the people by cutting public services and attacking the living standards of working people. Under Lisbon the situation would be made worse he said: “A neo-liberal EU Commission could use the powers given to it under Lisbon to force states to comply with its budgetary requirements. It would punish governments who would invest in education, health services and public transport. Instead ordinary people would pay for a capitalist crisis through cuts in services and living standards while endorsing – as the EU Commission already has – multi-billion bailouts for banks and speculators.”

Lisbon far from protecting workers rights was an attack on them: “there would be no new rights for workers under Lisbon but the rights promised would be subject to and inferior to the rights of employers and contractors to exploit their workers for lower pay and inferior conditions of employment.” He said Lisbon commits the states of the EU to increase their military capacity while giving huge powers to the European arms industry through the European Defence Agency.

Prof. Karl A. Schachtschneider

“For what, the people of Europe are entitled to ask, is this increased military force to be used?” Des Dalton said. “Is it to fight the ‘resource wars of the 21st century’ which the then President of the EU Commission Jacque Delors predicted in the early 1990s. To be used by the developed and rich north against the developing and poor south for possession of their natural resources.

“This campaign is part and parcel of the struggle against imperialism. Just as we oppose British imperialism in Ireland we must also oppose the new imperialism of the EU. The purpose of the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution is to build an undemocratic, militarised and ultra-capitalist super-state. The Irish economist the late Raymond Crotty described the EU project as imperialism by other means.”

The other speakers were Prof Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, former Professor of Law at Nuremberg University. Prof Shachtschneider took the famous legal challenge of the Lisbon Treaty to the German Federal Constitutional Court which has delayed the German ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

He said it was the inherent right of people to “elect their own parliament and those responsible for making laws, the right to create a social state etc”. Prof Shachtschneider said to take on and challenge the “power of a mega-state you need a people with a distinct cultural and historical identity.”

Dr. Eva-Maria Barki

He said that the EU Parliament does not constitute a real government as it does not represent people. “The empowerment of the EU is limitless, taking on more and more power. Such a government can only be despotic. True democracy can only be based on small national units.” He said.

Karl Shachtschneider is coming to Ireland to support the campaign for a No Vote at the invitation of Republican Sinn Féin. He will address a public meeting in Wynn’s Hotel, Middle Abbey St Dublin, on Monday September 21 at 7.30pm and in the Imperial Hotel, Eyre Square Galway on Tuesday September 22 at 8.00pm.

Dr Eva Maria Barki, an expert in nationality and ethnic law and a board member of the Austrian League for Human Rights spoke on the right of the self-determination of peoples. She said the Lisbon Treaty and the EU project were an “infringement of the right inherent to all peoples to self-determination”, she went on to say that the EU was to the detriment of the national rights of peoples such as Ireland, the Basque Country, Catalonia etc who were in conflict with the larger states of the EU.

Minister O'Dea, Neutrality & the Lisbon Treaty

A PRESS statement from Roger Cole, chair of the Peace & Neutrality Alliance (PANA) on September 7 in response to statements by 26-County Minister Willie O'Dea said:

“Minister O'Dea says Irish neutrality is safe under the Fianna Fail Lisbon Treaty. The reality is that it is as safe as the Irish economy has been under Fianna Fail. The reality is that they have destroyed both.

“Look at the facts. The Mutual Defence clause of the Lisbon Treaty, Article 28A(7) states:

"If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all means in their power, in accordance with Art.51 of the UN Charther. This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States. Commitments and cooperation in this area shall be consistent with commitments under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which, for those states which are members of it, remains the foundation of their collective defence and the form for its implementation."

Thus the Lisbon treaty states that EU mutual defence shall be consistent with the mutual defence of a nuclear armed military alliance. Andrew Duff MEP, Rapporteur of the Foreign Affairs Committee on the Lisbon Treaty says that the nuclear armed military alliance, the Western European Union should be abolished if the Lisbon Treaty is passed because its last remaining objective, that of collective self-defence, would have been exported to the EU.

Since well over a million US troops have used Shannon Airport on their way to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan in contravention of the 1907 Hague Convention which defines in international law the duties and responsibilities of neutral states, Ireland has not been a neutral state since February 2003.

These are the facts. The corporate media, especially RTE has a responsibility to stick to the facts and allow for debate on a treaty that the Irish people are being forced to vote on again that is exactly the same as they rejected last year. I would like to than RTE and TG4 for covering the PANA/IAWM conference on War, NATO and the Lisbon Treaty held at Shannon. The Irish Times TSNmrbi public opion polls held in May and June 08 before the vote last year showed that concerns about Irish neutrality was a key issue as to why the people voted no. If PANA is given the space to democratically debate the facts and not the guff which is typical of Minster O'Dea, then PANA believes the no vote will be even greater on the 2nd of October."

Leading German EU law expert to support No campaign

UNIV. PROF. Dr. Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, Nuremberg (Germany) who led the challenge to the Lisbon Treaty at the German Constitutional Court - the court challenge has resulted in Germany having yet to ratify the Lisbon Treaty - will be visiting Ireland to lend his support to the campaign for a No vote.

He is coming to Ireland at the invitation of Republican Sinn Féin from September 21 to 23.

On September 21 he will address a press conference in Buswell’s Hotel, Molesworth St, Dublin at 12 Noon.

That evening he will be the keynote speaker at a public meeting in Wynn’s Hotel, Middle Abbey St at 7.30pm.

Prof Schachtschneider as an expert in European and Constitutional Law will speak in particular on the new EU-“guarantees” and what they really mean for Ireland and also what are the consequences of the judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court?

The next day he will travel to Galway where he will address a meeting in the Imperial Hotel, Eyre Square at 8.00pm. The meeting will be chaired by Republican Sinn Féin member of Galway Cp Council Tomás Ó Curraoin.

Biography of Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, Nuremberg, Germany

He was Born on July 11, 1940 in Hutten/Pommern (in province of what was then East Germany).

He received a School-leaving certificate in classical languages in 1960 in Berlin.

Studying law at the universities in Berlin, Bonn and Tubingen. In 1963 first, in 1969 second State Certificate in Law at Berlin. 1969 obtaining the degree of Dr Jur at the Free University of Berlin.

In 1986 he was inaugurated in constitutional law and administration and for private and public law of economics at the Special Branch for the Science of Law in Hamburg.

From 1969-80 he was a practising lawyer in Berlin.

1972-78 Professor for Economics at the professional School of Economics in Berlin (evening courses).

1978-89 university professor for the Law of Economics at Hamburg University.

1989-2006 chair-holding Professor of public law at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg.

1992-95 dean of the faculty for economic and social sciences at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg.

In numerous books, scientific articles, court proceedings and public speeches he has analysed globalisation and its consequences in a critical way and has stood up all the time firmly for freedom and the civil rights of people in opposition to corporations and the state.

It is due to his several legal actions on EU treaties at the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe that the President of the Federal Republic of Germany has yet to sign the Lisbon Treaty for ratification in Germany. In Austria he has acted on behalf of a civil rights committee taking legal action.

Prof Schachtschneider gave voluminous written evidence to the constitutional court in Vienna in October 2008 stating why all EU treaties violate the national constitution of the Federal Republic of Austria.

Support for Lisbon Treaty drops

WITH just a month to go until the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, a poll has shown that 46 percent support a yes vote, down eight points since May.

Published by the Irish Times, the TNS mrbi poll shows a rise of one point in those saying they plan to vote No to 29 percent with the Don't Knows registering at 25 percent, up seven points in comparison to a pre-summer survey.

The newspaper notes that most of the people who have left the Yes side have entered the Don't Know category rather than crossed to the No camp.

The drop in support for the treaty is reminiscent of the trend in the weeks ahead of the first referendum which resulted in a No in June last year. It is set to spur the the 26-County administration to place more focus on a strong and coherent campaign.

However, the Fianna Fail party, grappling with the devastating effects of the economic crisis, has reached an historic low in polls, garnering just 17 percent support in another poll by the Irish Times.

The survey indicates that 85 percent are dissatisfied with the 26-County administration’s performance while 11 percent approve it.

Vote No to EU world power

IN A very crucial interview on the RTE Morning Ireland programme on August 3 Catherine Day of the EU Commision finally admitted the real reason why the Irish people are being forced to vote again by the 26-County administration on exactly the same treaty. Its purpose is to transform the EU into a "world power"

In a statement Roger Cole, Chair of PANA said:" I was very pleased to hear Catherine Day of the EU Commission finally admit the real reason why the Irish people are being bullied and intimidated into reversing their democratic decision to reject the Lisbon Treaty last year. The treaty is to transform the EU into a "world power". It is for this exact same reason that PANA is calling upon the Irish people to stand by their decision last year and vote no.

“We were part of a "world power" before. It was called the British Union. It sent its Battle Groups all over the world, and while there was no conscription, the then Irish political/media elite encouraged the people to join them and take part in "peacemaking" missions in places like Afghanistan. Even now there are troops from EU states including Ireland occupying Afghanistan despite the fact that the people's of these states want them brought home.

“The Fianna Fail that supported President Bush's wars, that supported the neo-liberal economic policies have all but destroyed the Irish economy they are now nothing more than a born again Home Rule Party.” Roger Cole said.