TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF SWEDEN
His Excellency mr Göran Persson
Prime Minister of Sweden
Stockholm
Sweden
4 December 2001
Dear Mr Persson,
We, the undersigned representatives of Irish organisations opposed to the Treaty of Nice which are currently taking part in Irelands National Forum on Europe in Dublin, appeal to you to ensure that the Swedish Government does not proceed with ratification of this Treaty in view of the Irish peoples refusal to ratify it in their referendum last June.
We urge you and your Government to respect the judgement of Irelands voters who rejected the Nice Treaty by 54% to 46% in a fair and validly conducted constitutional referendum.
By ratifying the Nice Treaty when Irelands voters have refused to clo chat, Sweden is effectively joining in a campaign of pressure against the Irish people and the, Irish Government to induce them hold a second referendum on Nice in order to obtain a different result. That flouts the basic principles of democracy and shows fundamental lack of respect for the Irish peoples wishes.
Irelands No to Nice was not a vote against EU enlargement. The lrish people are not against enlargement of the EU. As EU Commission President Romano Prodi said in response to Irelands No vot: Legally, ratification of the Nice Treaty is not necessary for enlargement. The contentious provisions of Nice can easily enough be amalgamated with the issues of the proposed 2004 EU Treaty-making conference, while the non-contentious ones can be dealt with in a separate treaty that does not require an lrish referendum,
Irish people voted No to Nice because it militarizes the European Union by substituting the EU itself for the WEU. Nice shifts voting strength on the EU Council of Ministers from the Small States to the Big. It ends the concept of the EU as a partnership of legal equals by permitting an inner group of 8 States effectively to hijack the EU institutions for their own purposes, and to confront the other States thereafter with continual political and economic faits accomplis. It does this by abolishing the veto which every State has at present on such fundamental change.
We suggest to you that facilitating the ambition of some Big EU States to bring about in this way what Jacques Delors and joschka Fischer have termed a Union for the enlarged Europe and a Federation for the avant-garde, is neither in Irelands interests nor Swedens as smaller EU Member States.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed)
Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA)
The Green Party
Sinn Fein
Socialist Party
(Contact address for enquiries: 24 Crawford Ave., Dublin 9
Tel. 00-353-1- 8305792/6081898)
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