Eurolink News

MEPs dismiss claims of reduced voting strength as ‘red herring’ (24th Sept 2009)

September 24, 2009 at 11:31 am Leave a comment

Anti-Lisbon campaigners have been accused this week of deliberately ignoring a key feature of the Lisbon Treaty that protects small member states during voting procedures. Groups including Sinn Féin, Cóir and the UK Independence Party are claiming that the redistribution of voting weights in Lisbon is pitched in favour of larger countries and will lessen Ireland’s power to influence EU decision-making. However Munster MEPs have criticised the ‘No’ campaign this week for ‘only telling half the story’.
MEPs Brian Crowley (FF), Sean Kelly (FG) and Alan Kelly (Lab) pointed out that at present, votes by EU ministers must be approved by 74 per cent of member states. Under Lisbon, a system of double majority voting will require at least 15 member states to be in favour, representing at least 65 per cent of the population. This means that even if six countries with the largest populations (Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Poland) grouped together, they would be unable to push through a vote without the support of nine other member states.
‘Lisbon actually favours smaller countries because under the main criteria, every member states gets one vote, and this is balanced by the second criteria based on population, which is fair,’ said Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly. ‘At any rate, the vast majority of EU decisions are taken by consensus and never come to a vote, so the whole question of voting strength is a red herring,’ he added.
‘The new system is more transparent and puts smaller countries like Ireland on an equal footing with larger states,’ agreed Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley. ‘The claims by Cóir and Sinn Féin about a decrease in voting strength are simply false.’

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