No compromise

via the Federal Union Blog, I see that Sinn Fein, one of the major parts of the no campaign, has published its demands on what should be changed in the Treaty:

• the retention of a permanent commissioner;

• the retention of existing voting strength at the Council of Ministers;

• the retention and strengthening of key strategic vetoes on tax, public services and international trade;

• the maintenance of the absolute right of Irish citizens to have the final say in significant changes to the EU treaties;

• a specific article protecting our neutrality;

• a specific protocol explicitly exempting vital public services from rules of competition and state aid;

• opt-outs from expenditure on nuclear power and military capabilities;

• the inclusion of a social progress clause and greater protections for workers' rights;

• the active promotion of fair trade over free trade;

• the strengthening of the role of member-state parliaments and citizens.

Now these demands are rather broad. The opt-out on nuclear power should be no problem, there was never anything which would have forced Ireland to pay for military capabilities, so this is also no problem, exemption on competition rules for public services should be alright, too. Some more points could also be dealt with.

However there are some points which can not be accommodated. We can certainly not hard wire "the promotion of fair trade" into the treaty, the same goes for a "social progress clause". The voting weights at the Council of Ministers are completely unproportional, so that is impossible, too.

All in all the demands are clearly unrealistic. This would mean that it is impossible to win the support for Sinn Fein in a second referendum. If this means that a second referendum can not be won, then maybe it is time to start to think about the consequences.

Update: Jon Worth also discusses the points which have been identified as the major concerns of the Irish population.

Update II: This is rich! I just read an articel by Sin Fein MEP Mary Lou McDonald. She writes (emphasis added by me):

We argued that the Lisbon Treaty would deepen the democratic deficit by removing Ireland's permanent commissioner, reducing our voting strength at council, removing or weakening key strategic vetoes, such as on taxation and international trade, and by giving the European Council the power to amend the fundamental laws of the union.

So in the World of Sin Fein democracy now means veto rights and voting strength completly unproportional to population size. Everybody who argues for a stronger democratic institutions (stronger parliament) on the EU level should always keep in mind that for anti-EU groups democracy is only a word without real meaning. Strengthening parliament and therefore undermining the Council would be the exact opposite of what is advocated here by Sin Fein.