THE LEADER of the Green Party, John Gormley, has cleared a very high hurdle in difficult circumstances. Last year, Green Party members fell 13 votes short of endorsing the Lisbon Treaty that the public later rejected. The party was, officially, sidelined in that referendum debate, although individual members were free to support either side.
Its three Ministers did favour a Yes vote. Party members narrowly reversed last year’s decision over the weekend, this time barely securing the minimum two-thirds majority necessary to make support for the Lisbon Treaty a matter of official policy.
The party’s decision puts it in line with all other Green parties in Europe on support for the treaty. It ensures policy compatibility with its larger coalition partner in Government, on what is a major issue. It means that all parties in the Dáil, except Sinn Féin, favour the proposed constitutional amendment. And, for the first time in the party’s history, it means the Green Party will be campaigning for, and not against, greater European integration.
For any party to secure a two-thirds majority for any proposition presents a tough challenge. Saturday’s close result suggests the attitudes of party members on Lisbon have scarcely altered since last year’s narrow defeat, even though circumstances have greatly changed – both for the party and the country. For the Greens, the departure of one of the party’s strongest opponents of the Lisbon Treaty, Patricia McKenna, has helped, and may well have proved critical in achieving the required majority. That advantage was, however, offset by the party’s virtual wipeout in the recent European and local elections, and the challenges it faces in Government as the Coalition struggles to deal with the most severe economic downturn in the history of this State.
Nevertheless, the legal guarantees the Government secured on the Lisbon Treaty – on tax, neutrality and ethical issues – almost certainly offered reassurance to those who had reservations and doubts in these areas. These guarantees will become part of the European treaties, via a protocol, at a later date. There is an awareness that the critical role played by the European Central Bank in lending to Irish banks in the past year has greatly limited the impact of the financial crisis.
The numbers attending the special meeting provided a reassuring indicator of the Green Party’s underlying strength. For minor parties, the political options are necessarily limited and present difficult choices. The Green choice is between spending a political life in opposition tilting at windmills, or accepting the challenge that government presents to implement party policy in the most difficult of times.
The Green Party, in its political evolution, is slowly coming to realise that it is best placed to influence policy matters on the issues that concerns it – climate change and environmental conditions – in government. It has come to recognise that the Lisbon Treaty, which increases the European Union’s capacity to handle these issues at international level, provides the best means of implementing those policies.