John Baron Condemns EU Leaders' Arrogance

Speaking in the House of Commons today on a proposal to establish an audit of the costs and benefits of UK membership of Europe, John Baron MP highlighted the arrogance of some European leaders who have tried to dismiss the Irish ‘no’ vote on the Lisbon Treaty (otherwise known as the EU Constitution).

Technically, the Treaty has to be ratified by all Member States in order to become law, but some leaders are already looking for a way to circumvent the result of last week’s referendum. The Irish were the only voters in Europe to be given a say on the new Treaty.

During the debate, John highlighted some of the remarks made by EU leaders:

· Wolfgang Schaeuble, German Interior Minister: “a few million Irish cannot decide on behalf of 495 million Europeans”

· Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Euro-Green leader: “it is not truly democratic that less than a million people should decide the fate of half a billion Europeans”

· Axel Schafer, SPD Bundestag leader: “with all respect for the Irish vote, we cannot allow the huge majority of Europe to be duped by the minority of a minority of a minority”

· Yves Leterme, Belgian Prime Minister: “we need to examine the existing possibilities to ensure in any case the entry into force of the treaty and to associate Ireland with it”

· Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister: “irrespective of the results of the referendum in Ireland ... Europe will find a way of implementing this treaty”

· Lopez Garrido, Spanish Secretary of State for the EU: the Lisbon Treaty “will be applied, albeit a few months late”

· Jose Barroso, Portuguese President of the European Commission: “the treaty is not dead, the treaty is alive and we will try to work to find a solution”

Afterwards, John said: “The arrogance of the European leaders in trying to ignore people’s views on the future direction of the EU is breathtaking and illustrated yet again in their reaction to the Irish ‘no’ vote.

“There is a democratic deficit at the heart of Europe. 26 out of the 27 countries ratifying this treaty will not be given the opportunity to hold a referendum. Gordon Brown bottled out of a referendum after promising one in the Labour Party manifesto of 2005. The Irish were the only people in Europe to have a say and they have spoken for all of us – an inconvenient truth for the European leaders.

“Given that it needed ratification by every nation, the Treaty should now be declared dead once and for after the Irish vote. The fact that it hasn’t proves this democratic deficit exists.”