Sinn Féin challenges government to publish Lisbon guarantees (19/2/09)
February 19, 2009 at 12:29 pm Leave a comment
The recent opinion poll showing a major swing in favour of the Lisbon Treaty ‘means little’ unless the government is prepared to publish the text of the guarantees that will accompany a second referendum, a Dublin MEP said this week. Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald has called for the details of the assurances on taxation, neutrality and abortion agreed at last December’s EU Council of Ministers to be published in full, together with an explanation of how these guarantees can be made legally-binding. ‘People need to know what they will be asked to vote on when the government re-runs the treaty,’ she said. Ms McDonald also warned that the proposed guarantees do not include a social progress protocol or the protection of public services from increased privatisation. ‘This is a huge cause of concern in the current economic climate, and these factors were both major factors behind the ‘No’ vote,’ she said. Meanwhile Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said he is still considering whether to bring forward the referendum from the original date of October.
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