Amsterdam Treaty opposed
Caoimhghín O Caoláin TD voiced Sinn Féin opposition to
the Amsterdam Treaty when the proposed amendment to the
constitution to ratify the Treaty was debated at the
committee stage. Speaking on Wednesday he said:
``James Connolly, who has been mentioned here already in
this debate, once said that ``the internationalism of
the future will be based on the free federation of free
peoples''.
What is being constructed under the Amsterdam Treaty is
not a free federation but a giant superstate with no
democratic accountability to its citizens.
``I want to deplore the patronising and insulting tone
of a number of speakers who have treated with disdain
the legitimate position of all those who oppose the
Amsterdam Treaty. There have been attempts to smear and
discredit those of us who are defending neutrality. We
have been aligned with the extreme right in Europe but
strangely Deputy De Rossa has had no difficulty in
lining up with the traditional right in this State when
he was in government. The long-time advocates of
so-called democratic centralism have found a new and
great toy in the European Union where their advocacy
echoes on sympathetic ears.
``Those who support a common EU foreign and security
policy and the framing of a common defence have never
answered a very simple question. They have never told
us against whom we are supposed to be defending the
European Union. Who is the enemy? Where is the power
that is going to attack Europe? Surely that is the
greatest `bogey man' of them all and not our
justifiable argument that this Treaty erodes
neutrality.''
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