EU:EUROSCEPTIC MEP Jens-Peter Bonde has been strongly criticised in his own country for invoking the "abortion debate" on a recent trip to Ireland as a reason to vote against the Lisbon Treaty.
Politiken, a Danish broadsheet newspaper, ran an article on Tuesday that carried critical comments by politicians, which accused the MEP of "lying to create uncertainty and fear" and "shameless" double standards.
The comments by Danish MEPs follow Mr Bonde's recent address to the National Forum on Europe in Ireland where he appeared to argue that the treaty would undermine Ireland's ability to defend its protocol in existing EU treaties ruling out abortion.
"You have your protocol on abortion. You have your low taxation on corporations. Some countries have very special conditions and they need a strong defence for those in the decision-making structure and I am afraid that this is what we are going to lose from the smaller member states when we have . . . this new decision-making system in Brussels," Mr Bonde told the national forum in his address on March 6th in Dublin.
His comments were strongly criticised by Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness and Labour MEP Prionsias De Rossa, who accused Mr Bonde of "nasty politics". But the Eurosceptic's speech has also attracted the attention of several Danish MEPs, who are quoted in Politiken criticising him.
"It is a disaster that a Dane is trying to contribute to the destruction of the treaty by manipulating freedom rights and human rights in the Irish debate. Shameless," said Margrethe Auken, an MEP for the leftist Danish party Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF).
Karin Riis-Jørgensen, from government majority party Det Liberale Venstre, who is a vice-president of the ALDE group in the parliament, said it was "indecent and untrustworthy".
"He lies to create uncertainty and fear," she told Politiken.
Britta Thomsen, a socialist who sits on the parliament's committee on equal rights, said it showed "how recklessly Bonde applies his double standards".
The strong attack by Irish and Danish politicians prompted Mr Bonde to complain his comments were "misunderstood and misconstrued". On his website www.bonde.com Mr Bonde says he was not using the abortion argument against the treaty. "I was quoted ... for having said that an Irish yes to the Lisbon Treaty would outlaw the Irish rules on abortion. I did NOT say that. I would never interfere in an Irish debate for or against abortion," he wrote.
Mr Bonde is the most prominent Eurosceptic so far to join the Irish debate on the treaty.