EUROPEAN REACTION:ANTI-LISBON Treaty groups from across Europe have welcomed the result of yesterday's referendum, for the most part using it to call for a different approach to EU reform.
Former Danish MEP and chairman of the EU Democrats organisation, Jens Peter Bonde, called for the treaty to be shelved entirely.
“The treaty now needs to be archived together with the just-as-much rejected EU constitution . . . A new democracy process may start to find new rules of play which can unite us instead of splitting us,” he said.
“Why not elect a convention to establish draft rules with more transparency, closeness and democracy and then send the proposal for referendums in all EU member states at the same day,” he added.
Mr Bonde, who attended the count at Dublin Castle, argued that people in other member states would also have rejected the treaty if they had been allowed to vote on it.
He criticised the Government and the Referendum Commission for “misleading” voters and accused them of telling “half-truths” on issues such as taxation and the WTO talks.
Among his recommendations for the way forward, Mr Bonde called for a “new and simple” treaty.
“It must not be more complicated than the prime ministers can manage to read and understand before signing it,” Mr Bonde added.
Siegfried Bernhauser from the Austrian branch of anti-globalisation movement Attac, called for a “completely fresh start”.
Mr Bernhauser, who has been in Ireland campaigning for a No vote since May, said his organisation was opposed to any attempt to “rewrite” the Lisbon Treaty.
“What we would like to see is a new treaty, a constitution for Europe, that is elaborated and adopted democratically,” he added.
In a joint statement, the pan-European groups Mehr Demokratie e.V., Democracy International and the European Referendum Campaign, said that the vote had created a “new crisis” within the EU, but added that it was one that offered the opportunity to “set the European Union in a new democratic foundation”.
“In its current condition, the EU clearly does not have the support of the majority of Europeans, as the French and Dutch referendums already showed in 2005,” the statement noted.
“It is time to change our thinking. The citizens have to be involved in the creation of the next legal draft . . . Without them, the treaty and thus the EU would suffer from a significant lack of legitimacy.”
The three groups called for the establishment of a directly elected convention to agree on a draft text that would then be put to the public in referendums in every member state.
The Danish People’s Movement called for the treaty to be scrapped and demanded a referendum in Denmark if the EU chooses to ignore the Irish result and move ahead regardless.
“The EU did not respect that the EU constitution died in 2005. Sadly, there is no reason to think that they will do so this time. If the EU does not halt the ratification process, we must demand an immediate referendum on the treaty in Denmark,” said MEP Søren Søndergaard.
In France, extreme-right politician Jean Marie Le Pen’s deputy, Bruno Gollnisch, declared the result an “historical victory” achieved, he said, despite an “unbalanced campaign fraught with lies, intimidations and insults to the Irish”.
The National Front deputy, who had earlier this year pledged to travel to Ireland with Mr Le Pen to campaign for a No vote, added: “The Irish did benefit from the EU but they do not want to disappear in a super federalist and bureaucratic state
“The Irish No expresses a desire: to see the European construction taking a totally different direction, that of a Europe of sovereign states.”