EUROPEAN DIARY:The EU is far from perfect and, given its nature as a collective of 27 member states, it probably shouldn't try to be, writes JAMIE SMYTH
EUROPEAN AFFAIRS Minister Dick Roche could hardly hide his excitement when he travelled to Rome last week to hand over the papers containing Ireland’s formal ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
This purely procedural step brings to an end two years of bruising domestic debate on the merits of an EU treaty, probably the last for many years.
“For Ireland, this event closes a process which began in December 2000 with a declaration by the European Council on the future of the EU,” said Roche, who added that the event was a source of national and personal pride.
My own engagement with EU institutional reform began four years ago when I moved to Brussels in the wake of the French and Dutch No votes to the EU constitution – the precursor to Lisbon.
The mood was downbeat as EU leaders announced a year of reflection to try to work out how they could rescue the blueprint for reforming how the union works.
It later turned to despair when the Irish public voted No to Lisbon in June 2008, a blow that many EU officials thought sounded a death knell for the treaty.
Yet within 16 months, the Irish electorate had reversed its decision.
Last week, even eurosceptic Czech president Václav Klaus signalled he is finally ready to sign the treaty to complete its ratification in all 27 EU states. This should enable the treaty to enter into force in January 2010, and marks an appropriate end to my four years working as a journalist in Brussels.
What did I learn about the union and Ireland’s relationship with Europe during my stint here, and what does the future hold for the EU?
The first thing I learned on the job is that explaining to the public how the EU works is a major challenge for journalists and politicians alike.
EU jargon is dominated by strange acronyms such as Gaerc (general affairs and external relations council, a posh title for a meeting of EU foreign and European affairs ministers) and the legislative process drags on for years as laws pass through the commission, parliament and council of ministers.
The EU generally isn’t sexy, although with more and more laws originating in Brussels and affecting how people live, it is critical to keep the public informed.
The debacle of the first Lisbon referendum clearly showed that the Government didn’t learn its lesson from the No vote to the Nice Treaty in 2002.
Since then it has abolished the Forum on Europe, which it believed provided a forum for Euro-sceptics during the Lisbon campaign. There is now a danger that it will fail to capitalise on the momentum provided by the better-organised second Lisbon campaign.
More focus on explaining how the EU works in schools would help. The Oireachtas also needs to be reformed to better enable TDs to properly scrutinise EU decision-making and communicate this to the public.
It is unfair to retain a system that mandates referendums for changes to the Irish Constitution without ensuring the public knows the basics about the EU.
Having a ring-side seat at EU summits, council meetings and parliamentary plenary sessions has clearly demonstrated to me the critical importance of the EU to a small country like Ireland.
Access to the European single market has helped to revolutionise the economy, embracing the euro has cut our historical reliance on Britain and being part of a club of 27 states enables us to have a say on how the world should tackle climate change or poverty. Put simply, the EU is our best and only defence against the downsides of globalisation.
But the EU is far from perfect and, given its nature as a collective of 27 member states, it probably shouldn’t try to be.
The obsession with institutional reform in Brussels for nearly a decade has deflected the union from tackling issues such as energy security and immigration and has probably done more to alienate the public than anything else.
Three No votes to Lisbon in three years in three countries demonstrates that the European public is increasingly nervous about devolving powers to Brussels.
Enthusiastic advocates of the Lisbon Treaty believe it will bridge this democratic deficit and make the union a more effective actor on the international stage.
The new treaty though will also bring new problems, initially at least, as EU states disagree over the role of the new president of the European Council and the limits of European integration in the justice area.
There is also the spectre of a Conservative-led government coming to power in Britain and demanding changes to its relationship with the union.
This will prompt uneasy questions for Ireland, which has been an extremely close ally of Britain’s Labour government over the past decade in EU matters.
Should we remain with Britain outside the Schengen common travel area? Should we continue to opt out of large portions of EU justice legislation and oppose tighter regulation of hedge funds?
These are just a few of the key issues that our politicians and journalists will grapple with as the debate on the Lisbon Treaty fades in coming months and years.