If you care about the world environment, you should vote Yes, writes Eamon Ryan.
LAST JANUARY, the Green Party held its own referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. There was a majority of 63 per cent in favour but not enough for the two-thirds majority required in the party constitution for a campaign in favour of the treaty. Each member was, however, entitled to voice their opinions and campaign in their own individual way for or against the treaty.
Some found this an overly democratic method of agreeing party policy on major issues but I believe this process was good for the Green Party. The parliamentary party may influence but does not lay down diktats for our membership on issues of such personal and political importance. This spirit and practice of true and direct democracy is ongoing, as the Irish public attempt to engage with the pros and cons of this treaty.
I believe this is a useful and entirely correct process. There may be no "one big idea" in the Lisbon Treaty but each Irish person will register their sovereignty and their own vision for the future direction of the European project on June 12th.
The previous September, I spoke at the Association of European Journalists annual meeting and outlined my support for the treaty and why I would be voting Yes. For me, the European Union is the embodiment of what we need in international politics. It represents the voluntary coming together of nations in pursuit of common answers to common problems.
Right now, I believe the greatest problems facing Ireland and the world are the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. On these interlinked questions, the EU has decided to take the lead.
The EU is ahead of the rest of the world on climate change, both in its appreciation of the science and its search for a solution. In my mind, the rest of the world will soon follow suit, particularly with a new administration in the United States. Other economic blocs are beginning to move in the right direction also, as they see the economic imperative of tackling environmental issues.
The Lisbon Treaty includes a specific reference to "combating climate change" for the first time ever in an EU treaty. The treaty also focuses on European countries working together to ensure the security of energy supplies and to promote energy efficiency and the development of our own renewable sources of energy. This is the right focus and these are the right responses.
Our economic security is bound up entirely in our energy security. We are vulnerable to volatile energy prices as global demand for oil and gas increases. We have to prepare for a world where oil supplies contract.
The only way Ireland can maintain our security of supply - and therefore our economic competitiveness - is through a European market for energy. The Lisbon Treaty recognises this and copperfastens these ideas into the European institutional framework.
I believe all those interested in preserving our environment and tackling climate change should vote Yes to this treaty. Those concerned with our economic competitiveness should equally vote in favour, as these issues are so clearly bound together.
On the economy, energy and climate change, we are nothing if we stand alone.
This particular treaty does more than enshrine energy security and climate change into the core document of the EU, it makes the mechanisms for achieving all that the union does more efficient, more transparent and more democratic.
Making the internal workings of the union more efficient may not be glamorous but it is vital. Working as I do, with over 30 Green parties across Europe, I understand the necessity of streamlining complicated decision-making processes so we can arrive at shared but effective decisions.
The measures in the Lisbon Treaty for greater transparency - for example, Council of Ministers meetings held in the open - will go a long way to addressing the idea that decisions are taken by bureaucrats behind closed doors. The major decisions the EU faces are taken by democratically elected national representatives. Passing this treaty will make these meetings available for greater public scrutiny.
The treaty gives greater powers and areas of co-decision to the elected European Parliament. National parliaments will also have greater strength of scrutiny. The initiative for a citizen's proposal, with one million signatures across Europe, is one close to my own sense of sharing of power.
This referendum is about Europe. I believe the European project is a progressive one that is engaging with the great issues of our time and working to solve them. I believe the proposals for more effective decision-making and greater democracy will make the EU better, both in principle and in practice. We live in a world of shared problems to which there can only be shared solutions. The Lisbon Treaty will help us take on the challenges ahead in unity and with purpose.
Eamon Ryan is Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and a Green Party TD for Dublin South