Martin: Don’t focus on details of Lisbon

[eurosceptic]

Sorry setanata i cannot agree. Fact remains our public services veto will have to be justified under lisbon wheras presently it does not.
Fact remains the protocol does not protect us from the ECJ overturning our veto. The protocol is aspirational in its language. The ECJ can still rule that the proposal does not meet the criteria for national veto regardless of the clarifying protocol as if the ECJ takes the view that our veto is not justified then it will also be taking the view that "The provisions of the Treaties do not affect in any way our competence to provide, commission and organise non-economic services of general interest".
The backdoor is open on public services.

Some other points to note:
1- reformtreaty.ie is a government website that was put up on the legal advice that mckenna didnt apply until the referendum date was set. so it is heavily biased to the yes side.
2- You again have offered an extremely optimistic view of the future applications/interpretations of the treaty. The optimists were wrong about nice so there is every reason they could be wrong on lisbon.
3- It was the leftist groups that raised this matter so a personal attack on me as a conservative is rather bizarre.
4- I am not a europhobe. My euroscepticism is scandanavian rather than british. That is i think brussels has too much power thanks very much.

[He3]

Don't focus on the details says Micheál Martin. Maybe he is right. Anyone trying to focus on the details is likely to have a hard time getting their focus adjusted, if the latest on the L Treaty is anything to go by. What does this mean:

No decision has been taken regarding the holding of a second referendum on the Lisbon treaty, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said today.

“Everything is entirely conditional on the concerns of the Irish people regarding tax, defence and social issues including workers’ rights being addressed to our satisifaction,” he told the Dáil.

“The decision to revisit ratification therefore remains firmly in our own hands,” he said.

The Government has secured several guarantees from its EU counterparts regarding voter concerns with the Lisbon Treaty.

The concessions in the sensitive areas of military neutrality, taxation policy and workers' rights also include the retention of a permanent commissioner and are aimed at having the treaty ratified by all 27 member states by January 1st, 2010.

Mr Cown said: “When these issues are addressed to our satisfaction, we have committed ourselves to seeking to ratify the treaty before the end of the term of the current Commission,” in November.

Link

Figure that one out. Have 'the issues' been addressed to 'our satisfaction' or not? Have we got 'guarantees' or not? Is it that we have been told we will get guarantees but we don't know what they will actually, well, guarantee?

[He3]

The Examiner article with Martin's remarks mentioned in the OP is no longer accessible. Does anyone have a working link to it?