JASON FITZHARRIS,
Sir, - One of the arguments put forward by the anti-Europeans against the Nice Treaty is that we will lose our national veto in a few dozen policy areas. Typically, in the same breath the anti-Europeans bleat about the undemocratic nature of the EU. This appears to imply that they believe that a national veto is a perfectly valid democratic instrument!
The national veto allows any member-state to block a proposal even if every other member-state wants it. Imagine if Luxembourg vetoed an increase in CAP payments. Would that be fair? Would it be democratic? How could an EU with 27 members possibly function if each member-state had a veto? It would be creating on a continental level that most insidious facet of Irish politics, the dreaded parish pump. Imagine if all of our TDs had a veto in the Dáil. It would be carte blanche to every hill-billy, single-issue Independent to strangle the State until he got what he wanted. We wouldn't tolerate such behaviour in this country, so why should we want it in Europe?
Replacing the veto with the qualified majority system makes the EU more democratic, not less so. It ensures that decisions at European level are made in the best interests of the majority of the people of Europe and stops the EU from being hamstrung by petty nationalist elements. If there was anything wrong with the Nice Treaty is that it didn't go far enough in scrapping the national veto.
I will leave the last word on the national veto to Jean Monnet. As well as being one of the founding fathers of the EU, Monnet was also the Deputy Secretary-General of the League of Nations from 1920 to 1923. The League of Nations was the forerunner to the United Nations and operated entirely on the basis on unanimity. Before he resigned in 1923 Monnet said that "the veto is the profound cause and at the same time the symbol of the impossibility of overcoming national egoism". - Yours, etc.,
JASON FITZHARRIS, Carlow.
Sir, - Irish citizens resident in the UK have the right to vote in British elections, the right to sit as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons, and, according to the Electoral Commission, the right to vote in all referendums held in Britain.
UK nationals resident in Ireland can vote in Irish general elections, but are not allowed to vote in Irish referendums. This means that about 200,000 residents of Ireland will be prevented from participation in the Nice Referendum, even though they will be materially affected by the result.
Many of these people own and operate successful companies in Ireland. These businesses are just as vulnerable to the economic impact of the referendum result as Irish businesses are. In the event of another No vote, the Irish economy may well suffer significant loss of European business confidence.
UK nationals who suffer financially as a result of a No vote might be able to seek, through European Union law, compensation from the State if excluded from participation in the vote.
Shouldn't everyone who is entitled to vote in Irish general elections have the right to vote in the Nice Referendum? Every resident of Ireland will be affected by the outcome, not just Irish citizens. - Yours, etc.,
DEBRA E. JAMES, Cummerduff, Gorey, Co Wexford.
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Sir, - I'd like to know just what part of the following sentence Anthony Coughlan (August 5th) fails to understand: "The policy of the Union in accordance with this article shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States". (Nice Treaty, Article 17.)
The issue of Irish neutrality is one for the people of Ireland to deal with alone and nothing in the Nice Treaty changes that. - Yours, etc.,
COLIN McGOVERN, Utrecht, The Netherlands.