The Lisbon Treaty and European Unification

Adoption of the Lisbon Treaty requires unanimous support by the European Union’s 27 member states. Ireland held a referendum on 12 June 2008, giving its citizens the opportunity to decide on the country’s relationship with the European Union.

Ireland was the only country constitutionally obliged to hold a referendum, for Lisbon requires changes to Ireland’s constitution. Participation in the EU defence and security projects will end Ireland’s stand of neutrality. The results of the referendum went against expectations of almost all UE member states. Fifty three percent of the Irish population voted, and 53% of those who voted, did so against the Lisbon Treaty with 46 % voting in favour.

Instead of looking at the reasons why the Irish people rejected the Treaty and addressing these, the major players (in particular Italy, France and Germany) vowed to carry on, putting the Treaty into effect. Why is there such a determination to propel the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty? More importantly, is the Lisbon path the correct one towards unification for Europe’s working and middle classes? Answers to these questions are best searched for through dealing with what the Lisbon Treaty is about and what belies the frantic desire on the part of Europe’s ruling classes for a United Europe.

Very briefly, the Lisbon Treaty and the European Constitution, represent an effort on the part of Europe’s ruling classes to create a political, military and diplomatic vehicle for the trade and currency of the EU. This they do to rival their American, Chinese and Russian competitors. Europe always had strong economic power, but its fragmented nature, especially the absence of coherence in the foreign policy and military arenas, frustrated it from presenting a strong and viable counterweight to the three aforementioned countries. The Lisbon Treaty envisaged to create a “High Representative for the Union on Foreign Affairs and Security Policy”, leading a “European External Action Service” and have consolidated policy development on security, justice, energy, research and territorial cohesion. The “big four” (France, Britain, Italy and Germany) are to dominate decision-making en bloc.

Part of the reason why Europe’s bourgeois politicians are hell bent on pressing ahead with the Treaty’s ratification is the widespread opposition it receives from ordinary people across the continent. This opposition is essentially about the undemocratic measures in the Treaty and the EU as a whole. Ratification now would spare them from having to deal with any popular expression of discontent. Ireland’s ‘No’ vote surfaced just too many fears for the ruling elite. It is not merely the idea of Ireland’s constitutional neutrality it fears could reignite opposition elsewhere, but the social and economic concerns of the Irish middle and working classes (and nominally that of their class brothers and sisters across Europe) embedded in the rejection of the Treaty. The other part of the reason, of course, is the need to speedily counter the inroads American, Russian and Chinese economic concerns are making in former Eastern Bloc countries. The European Union is a massive bureaucracy dedicated to forge a continent-wide bloc to better compete with its main rivals. This is not going to happen without systematic attacks on the poor and middle classes’ wage and social conditions with the aim of ultimately destroying them.

The unification of Europe is both a progressive and necessary goal for the working and middle classes of the continent, but it must be brought about by the working class in alliance with all poor strata across Europe, in opposition to capital and its political mouth pieces, whether they be in favour or against the Lisbon Treaty. A smooth technical, cultural and economic development of Europe, based on the needs of people, lies at the heart of such a perspective.