RIGHTS OF COUNTRIES:THE EU is the greatest protector that smaller countries have ever known, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday as he urged people to vote Yes to the Lisbon Treaty.
Mr Cowen said in a statement that the treaty was a "major victory" for smaller countries in the EU, including the Republic.
"Of all of the European treaties, this was probably the most influenced by smaller countries, and Ireland can be very proud of its central role in leading negotiations. This is reflected in the text of the treaty, which directly protects and promotes the interests of the member states, irrespective of their size," he said.
He cited a number of examples:
"No proposal will be able to be passed into law without the support of at least nine of the smaller countries. In a wide range of areas, even countries much smaller than Ireland will continue to be able to veto proposals.
"In relation to the commission, Germany, with over 80 million people, has agreed to have exactly the same rights as Malta, which has only 400,000 people. Equally, every national parliament is given the same rights in terms of new measures to increase the accountability of the Union.
"So, during the next two weeks, let's be clear on this issue: the European Union is the greatest protector which the smaller countries have ever known.
"The Lisbon reform treaty was negotiated by the small countries and it is in our interests to ratify it."
Separately, yesterday, the Taoiseach responded to criticism which followed his admission that he had not read the full text of the treaty by saying that he was more familiar with its detail than almost anybody else.
Speaking during a walkabout in Blanchardstown, Co Dublin, as part of the Fianna Fáil campaign to secure a Yes vote, he said that the treaty was almost wholly based on the text of the constitutional treaty brokered during Ireland's presidency of the EU in 1994.
"When I was foreign minister during [ Ireland's] presidency of the European Union I probably negotiated more lines of it than anybody else," he said.
