European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Charlie McCreevy, said today he had not read the Lisbon Treaty and wouldn’t expect ordinary voters to do so either.
Speaking in Dublin, the former minister for finance said there was sufficient information available to those who wished to inform themselves on the contents of the treaty.
Mr McCreevy was speaking at a European Commission-organised seminar entitled "Ireland and the European Union - Our Joint Economic Future".
Speaking on RTÉ radio afterwards, he was asked if he had read the Treaty. “I have not. I don’t think there’s anybody in this room who has read it cover to cover.
Mr McCreevy said he wouldn’t expect ordinary voters to read the Treaty either
“I don’t expect ordinary decent Irish people…will be sitting down spending hours reading sections about sub-sections referring to other articles and sub-articles, but there is sufficient analysis done and people have put together a consolidated text which is quite easy to read, people such as the ref com have done explanations,” Mr McCreevy added.
During the event, Mr McCreevy said: “Anyone who thinks that as the reality and inevitability of EU enlargement has taken hold that we can continue to tackle urgent problems without streamlining of the decision-making process is failing to face up to reality”.
He went on to say that it was impossible to have the kind of supervision of financial institutions necessary to protect Europe’s savers and investors without cross-border action at EU level.
“Anyone who thinks this could be done by member States acting alone is not living in the real world”, he said.
