[Individual-members-EL] After the Irish No, A new start is needed for Europe

[European Left]

Declaration of the Party of the European Left

 

After the Irish NO

A new start is needed for Europe.

 

 

The victory of the NO in Ireland is a chance for Europe. It must be seized.

 

The treaty of Lisbon cannot, and will not, be implemented. It was to be
ratified by the 27 countries and the Irish people decided that their country
would not do it. The will of the leaders of the European Union, affirmed by
the Council of June 19, to continue the ratification process, by pressuring
Ireland until it changes opinion, does not have any sense. There is no
outcome, neither legal nor political, for this treaty.

 

The question put today thus consists in an alternative: either stagnation in
the crisis or a new departure for Europe, starting from the opinion
expressed by its people.

 

Indeed we need to draw the conclusions owing to the fact that, all these
last years, as soon as the possibility was offered to the European people to
express themselves about the destiny of Europe, they, starting from their
experiment, refused to ratify the policies and the design of the European
Union as they are currently proposed to them.

 

The Irish people are not isolated. On the contrary, they became the
interpreter of the other European people to which their governments refused
the right to decide by referendum. Their vote confirmed and prolonged the
French and Dutch NO of 2005 by rejecting once again the policies of
precarisation, pressures on wages and social rights, of attacks against
public services, and alignment on NATO. It is indeed a call to real changes
in Europe. As the watchword of the opponents to the treaty affirmed: "Say NO
to this treaty for a better treaty". It is the question which is raised from
now on. 

 

The French Presidency will start on July 1. The European Left proposes that
instead of continuing with the arrogant and the blind way of the leaders of
the European Union, it is the occasion for the decisions be to the height of
the reality which has just been created: to stop from now on the
ratification process of a null and void treaty and to open at large the
construction of a new treaty for the European Union. 

 

So that it finally corresponds to the aspirations and needs of the people,
this new treaty must rest on other bases than the neoliberal and
militaristic ones that were at the heart of the rejections of the successive
past treaties. It must be elaborated in a completely new way for the
European Union, by a democratic and popular process, ratified by referendum
in each and every country. The next elections for the European Parliament
must also be a moment of clarification concerning the different positions on
the future of Europe. A new text will have to be ratified through referendum
in every country. We propose for this purpose, without waiting, initiatives
to be taken in order to undertake the work on this treaty. It should be
elaborated in association between the European Parliament and the National
Parliaments, starting from consultations of the citizens to make their
requirements known. 

 

Immediately, deep changes in the social, economic, monetary, environmental,
and defence policies are essential. In opposition to this necessity, Nicolas
Sarkozy affirms his willingness to keep the course of the "four priorities"
which he had himself fixed when imagining that the adoption of "his" Lisbon
treaty would be just but a formality. The continuation of the energy and
transport public services' dumping in place of a coherent energy and
climatic policy, the shame directive as immigration policy, alignment on
NATO as defence policy, orientations compatible with the WTO as agricultural
policy. All these decisions are going against the requirements for a social,
democratic, ecological, feminist Europe, as factor of peace and solidarity
in the world. A Europe of peace and solidarity is more than ever what is
needed as an exit to the current crisis.

 

Together, with all the forces, all those that wish it, let us work to this
new departure for Europe.

 

 

 

Paris, June 20, 2008.

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