WORKERS RIGHTS:Labour MEP Prionnsias De Rossa has said it is "entirely politically naive" to argue that a better deal could be secured for working people in any renegotiation of the Lisbon Treaty.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin yesterday, Mr De Rossa said that when the process that led to the Lisbon Treaty started in 2001 there were 11 social democratic governments in the then 15 member states. He said there were now 17 centre-right governments out of 27.
It would "not be possible to get a better deal for working people out of a completely changed political scenario", he said.
"There is no way that [Italian prime minister Silvio] Berlusconi will allow increased provision for the working people of Europe. He is entirely against it.
"We would be lucky to hang on to the social provisions that we have already negotiated if there was a renegotiation," he said.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg said the differences between it and the country's largest trade union, Siptu, on supporting the Lisbon Treaty were "tactical".
He was speaking at the same press conference, which was held at the European Parliament office in Dublin and was organised by the Labour Party.
Last week Siptu, the State's largest union, said that it would not back the treaty unless the Government agreed to introduce legal measures giving unions the right to engage in collective bargaining with employers. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, however, has voted to support the treaty
"What Siptu are talking about is a matter that is absolutely germane to the treaty itself. It would be a very good thing if the Government did accede to that proposition but it is not something that Congress has pushed as a tactical issue," Mr Begg said.
He said that the two key reasons to support the treaty were the provision of additional powers to the European Parliament and the new Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The experience of trade unions on the controversial EU services directive had reorientated trade unions' view of the EU Commission, he added.
Up to that point the trade unions had seen the commission as their "friend". He said that in the future people would now identify more with the EU Parliament.
Mr Begg also described the charter as "the most comprehensive body of social, economic and civil and political rights that exist anywhere".
Swedish Social Democratic MEP Jan Andersson told the press conference that under the treaty for the first time the right to take industrial action and sign collective agreements in accordance with national law and practice would be set out in primary law.
Mr De Rossa dismissed a Sinn Féin launch of a new bill to incorporate trade union recognition and collective bargaining rights into the Constitution as "a stunt".
Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan said that without such protections unions could not act to defend terms and conditions and resist downward pressure on wages.
Speaking at a Sinn Féin event outside Leinster House, Jimmy Kelly, Irish regional secretary of the trade union Unite, said prospects of securing a pay deal had been set back by a Government paper drawn up last week which in effect rejected movement towards mandatory union recognition.