Lisbon battle continues, but is Ireland happy?, Catherine Reilly

Catherine Reilly — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:37:59 +0100

Catherine Reilly continues her coverage of the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. You can read the rest of the series here, here and here.

Catherine Reilly ((Dublin, Metro Eireann ): Is nationalism playing a big part in Ireland’s Lisbon Treaty battle? This was the question posed by BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell in his Euroblog entry on the 19th of May. The short answer is no. The long answer is nope.

However, Mardell picked up on two important issues which could possibly veer some undecided voters towards a No vote. One is the fact that, under the Lisbon Treaty, Ireland would only have a permanent commissioner on a rotating basis. The other is the feeling (communicated to Mardell by a Dublin taxi driver) that the country’s prosperity, funded partly from EU coffers, has been a double-edged sword of samurai proportions.

The latter point is interesting to dwell on. According to the website of the European Commission Representation in Ireland: “While most Irish people will have sped past the blue signs along smooth new roads up and down the country, indicating that ‘This project was co-financed by the EU’, fewer people will be aware of the extent of change that the EU has helped initiate in Ireland. Since joining in 1973, the difference between what Ireland paid in and what the EU paid out is about €55 billion euros.” Read the rest of this post...

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Lisbon battle continues, but is Ireland happy?, Catherine Reilly