The elite of irish society make the European Movement Ireland (EMI) and its alter ego Alliance for Europe (AFE). The supreme court ruling in the 1995 McKenna judgment prohibits taxpayers money being used to fund the yes side. As such EMI cannot participate in referendum campaigns directly.
I had always treated EMI as serious politicians who made their case in a rational and dignified manner and who all round conducted themselves with a high degree of decorum. A lot has changed since the Irish people courageously said no to Lisbon last year. A new website called www.irelandsfuture.ie has popped up making numerous vague threats about our non-ratification. In fact exactly the same threats made to the Danish and Swedish people when they voted on joining the euro currency in 2000 and 2003 respectively (those threats proved empty by the way). Similarly the EMI website is publishing cartoon style documents prophesizing our demise, these echo the releases of the British National Party. http://www.europeanmovement.ie/fileadmin/files_emireland/downloads/The_Irish_Stun__12_June_2018.pdf
A sea change has taken place in Ireland’s relationship with Brussels. We are no longer offered positive arguments about the benefits of treaties, we are now threatened with the consequences of saying no. Much like the pro-EU lobby carry on in the remaining EFTA countries.
Indeed a lot of courage will be required of the irish people to resist this fear campaign. Take inspiration from the Danes and the Swedes!
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4 comments:
Hi,
I enjoyed reading your post - mind if I make a few points for the record.
I'm a volunteer with EMI. I'm a student. I'm broke. I intend to stay a student until there are jobs again. I'm not sure which of those pushed me over the line to become part of the elite of Irish society.
The people who are involved with EMI are not politicians. Sure, some of us are members of political parties and the EMI works on projects with politicians from all the parties from time to time. But there are no politicians on the board of EMI. We are ordinary citizens who believe that Ireland's membership of the EU is fundamentally a good thing and who want to spread the factual message about the benefits that we in Ireland get from our EU membership. We are not uncritical and we are not cheerleaders - we don't believe every single idea to come out of the European Commission is good just because the Commission thought of it.
EMI has nothing to do with www.irelandsfuture.ie. Simple as. And as for the Irish Stun - well, it's light hearted and satirical. But there is a serious message behind it - we can not take for granted the benefits of our EU membership. Like all good satire, it reminds us that we as citizens have a duty to stay informed and retain a healthy skepticism towards all those who seek our votes in elections and referendums. If we sleepwalk through apathy and misinformation into making a particular decision, whether it be on Europe or any other political issue, we could end up in a place we never intended.
You obviously have given quite some thought to your views on the EU and I respect that even though I may not agree with them. But I don't know where you have formed your view of EMI from.
Hi Declan
The first comment at last!
I will respond as follows to your concern about my post.
EMI are by and large (not without exception) a highly elitist organisation. The record of the organisation and its signed up patrons speaks for itself in my opinion.
I cant buy your assertion that the leaders of EMI are not politicians. Are they just people who happen to be politicians?
I am not here to debate the merits of our membership of the EU (i will gladly meet you for a pint if you are dublin based to debate it!). EMI are entitled to argue that EU membership is a good thing but to say you are not cheerleaders is frankly risible. You supported the treaty of Nice (twice) despite the fact it was an absolute disaster for Ireland and its consequences were obvious (undermining of our labour market in particular).
The lady behind irelandsfuture is from the alliance for europe which is your alter ego (to avoid the mckenna judgement). Thus you cant wash your hands of that one. The irish stun was childish, scaremongering and factually wrong left right and centre. Again i had EMI pegged as people who deserved to be taken seriously even though i disagreed with them.
The Lisbon scaremongering has indeed reached new and sadder depths. Is this how you plan to win the re-run and any future referenda? Is this how you plan to defend irelands membership of the EU?
Hi Irish Eurosceptic,
I don't really understand what you mean when you say the European Movement is a highly elitist organisation. Certainly there are high profile people who are members of EMI and some of them hold honorary positions within the organisation. However, I'm sure that if you were to look through our list of members you would see that they don't just come from the 'elites' of Irish society but are drawn from many sections of Irish life - including a lot of students like myself.
I do not believe EMI is a cheerleading organisation - I certainly wouldn't be interested in being part of it if it was. But as I wrote in my first post, we believe that Ireland's membership of the EU is fundamentally positive and we want to spread the factual message about the benefits that we in Ireland get from our EU membership. We believe we do that without pretending that the EU is perfect - our independence as an organisation allows us to do that.
EMI didn't take a position on either side of the Nice Treaty debate in either referendum and you just claiming this on your blog certainly does not make this fact. Neither did it have any connection with the Alliance for Europe. For sure, some of our members were active in the Alliance for Europe - myself included - but it was a totally separate organisation from EMI and in no way an 'alter ego'. As for the Ireland's Future' website, the lady who runs that site - who I know personally - is not a member of EMI.
I contributed in a very small way to the development of the Irish Stun piece - I would be interested to know which parts you felt were factually wrong.
Hi Declan.
Thanks for your reply. Been doing exams so sorry for being so long. Anyway to answear your queries.
1- Well take a look around you at the next EMI agm. The political elite, the business elite etc. Not that there arent ordinary joe soaps there too. btw where can i get such a membership list so i can test your theory.
2- So you arent a cheerleading organisation then. Tell me do EMI do expose's on corruption in brussels? Whats your position on MEP expenses? Whats EMI's position on the the interference in our marriage laws via the brussels I and II directives? Whats your position on the laval and ruffert judgements? Whats your position on the metock judgement that has placed a huge burden on our welfare bill? So you arent a cheerleading organisation then?
3- You had no official position on nice and lisbon for a single reason, the Mckenna judgement. AFE was formed for a single reason, the Mckenna judgement. Legally you may seperate organisations but so are the libertas party and the libertas think tank! The level of cross-pollination between EMI and AFE speaks for itself. I repeat you may do enough to satisfy SIPO that you are not the same organisation but i find it insulting to my intelligence.
4- Factual inaccuracies of the STUN are as follows starting from the top down.
TITLE- Thats a mightily expensive paper. Why can we expect such hyperinflation? Please publish your economic data and methodology leading to that prediction.
BRUSSELSPROUTS INTRO-
1. Publish your legal opinion that the dissolution of the EU means the dissolution of the EEA.
2. same point EEA.
3. Good we get our fisheries back.
4. Why so? There is nothing to prevent an agreed negotiating position, scaremongering.
5. That was eliminated with the introduction of qualified Majority Voting 20 years ago.
6. All of this could be easily put into an international treaty, scaremongering.
7. True but with the return of our fisheries and an end to overregulation red tape we can manage.
8. Ever heard of interpol? Sensationalist scaremongering really scraping the barrell.
EASTERN MONEY TRANSFER AD- scaremongering here, the EEA will continue to exist so the common market will continue on. Even if it didnt what is your economic model for the collapse of europe's economy?
WTO ARTICLE- Again nothing to prevent the "former" EU countries from reaching an agreed position.
FARM SOLIDARITY TAX- CAP dries up for most farmers by 2012 so CAP will be no loss by 2018.
JEAN MARIE LE PEN ARTICLE- What reason is ther to believe that the dissolution of the EU will mean wingnuts become the president of France? Anyone with a morsel of sense knows protectionism doesnt work.
HUCKABEE ARTICLE- Very very purile and again whats to prevent the "former" EU countries agreeing a common position? The sniping at Mr.Huckabee is childish at best.
BRITISH LABOUR LAW ARTICLE- Why cant the brits elect a government committed to fair labour law? They are a democracy after all.
CURVY BANANA AD- Thats a mightily expensive banana. Why can we expect such hyperinflation? Please publish your economic data and methodology leading to that prediction.
FOOTBALL ARTICLE- Once again the EEA will continue to exist and even if it didnt the republic of ireland act would still exist, so irishmen could still play for city or united. Repetetive scaremongering.
All in all its an extremely childish and infantile piece. As i said so often before you used to get serious debate and rational arguement from the EMI.
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