Debate on the Lisbon Treaty

Madam, - Anthony Coughlan of the National Platform is a knowledgeable critic of the EU, and he is right to expect perfect accuracy…

Madam, - Anthony Coughlan of the National Platform is a knowledgeable critic of the EU, and he is right to expect perfect accuracy in your summary of the proposed reform treaty (January 4th).

But he himself falls below that high standard when he argues that, under its terms, Ireland "would have no representative. . .on the EU Commission. . .for one out of three terms" and that the Government "would lose its right to decide who the Irish representative should be" (my italics).

He is well aware that the Commission is not a representative body, and that its members are forbidden to take instructions from the governments which nominated them. That will not change under the new treaty.

The legitimacy of the Union's legislative process depends on the Commission functioning in a neutral manner for the collective good.

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The National Platform ought to protest vigorously every time Commission members seem to be acting on behalf of their countries of origin, rather than in the interests of the Union. Instead, one could infer from Mr Coughlan's letter that that is just how the National Platform believes commissioners should behave. - Yours, etc,

MICHAEL DRURY, Avenue Louise, Brussels.

Madam, - Janez Lenarèiè, Slovenia's state secretary for European affairs, insists that the Reform Treaty exercise is not anti-democratic (The Irish Times, January 2nd). His case might be more convincing had not his political colleagues so cynically proved otherwise.

In 2005, the citizens of two of the Union's founding members rejected a constitution, 90 per cent of which has now been "salvaged". For this impertinence they have been disfranchised lest - as former French Minister for European Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, revealingly admits - they "would have had a similar referendum and perhaps a similar result".

Do we really favour an EU that holds the view of its own people in such contempt?

Ninety-nine per cent of our fellow Europeans are denied a voice on issues that will affect more than 490 million lives. This is democracy? - Yours, etc,

BRIAN MARTIN, Springfield, Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin 7.