We need voting strength and respect - not mercy says Farmers for No

Press statement

Speaking at the Ploughing Championships, Farmers for No spokesman, David Thompson today said:

‘THE IFA arguments in favour of Lisbon are totally bogus.
If we vote No, Ireland remains a full and active member of the EU, with full access to the EU market and ECB credit etc. Padraig Walsh and Minister Brendan Smith know this of course, but try to hoodwink people with this because they know there are no benefits in the Lisbon Treaty for Ireland.

‘AT the key Council of Ministers, under Lisbon our voting strength will half. We need more than goodwill or mercy when negotiating on behalf of Ireland; we need to keep our voting strength and get respect for our position.

‘Because we voted NO, at the moment, Ireland is at the political centre of Europe.
However, if we vote Yes, eaten bread is quickly forgotten and we become an irrelevance overnight.

‘Article 207 of Lisbon is clear that we lose our World Trade Organisation veto if we vote Yes. This would be a terminal mistake for Ireland and something the Irish people could never forgive the Yes advocates for.

‘Oh yes, the IFA sponsored poll is completely bogus, it is popcorn and propaganda. According to the Millward Brown study after Lisbon, 48 per cent of farmers voted no, in our experience of talking to farmers, the percentage will be even higher this time. Why is it higher? Because farmers notice a bad deal for agriculture and rural Ireland when they see it.’

ends

Yes vote a call for more hyper-regulation

Farmers for No spokesman David Thompson - former Limerick IFA chairman.
re Padraig Walsh's call for Nitrates Directive derogation:

'Farmers have had enough of EU hyper regulation which is strangling our industry and way of life.

'Why should Farmers are being financially crippled by the Nitrates Directive vote for Lisbon and more hyper-regulation?
Why should turf cutters prevented from cutting turf by the EU Habitats directive, give more power to EU bureaucrats.
'No farmer will a an ounce of intelligence will ask for more form filling and hyper-regulation.
'A Lisbon yes vote hands more power and areas of competence over to EU instutitions. It's a bad practice to make this instittutions more powerful but less acccountable.

IFA leader Padraig Walsh would be better off campaigning to keep political power in Irish people's hands rather that begging for a derogation of EU law after it's too late.

The EU was good for farmers in the past. But Lisbon is about the future and things are changing rapidly. There is not more money in the EU for us. Post-Lisbon is going to be payback time for the Irish taxpayer.'

ends

IFA heads cheerleading more EU hyperregulation and colluding in Yes push with untrustworthy Government who have left farmers in huge debt.

Spokesman for Farmers for NO, current Limerick IFA vice chairman,
David Thompson said Thursday 27/8/09:


'Lisbon transfers power from the Irish people to EU institutions.

'If Lisbon is passed Ireland's voting weight at the key EU Council of Ministers falls from 2 per cent to 0.8 percent.

How can the IFA think that loosing voting strength will help Ireland's negotiating strength going forward?

Where is its evidence a fall in voting strenght will help Irish negotiators?
Where is Padraig Walsh's evidence that 0.8 per cent voting weight puts us at the heart of Europe?

Farmers for NO advocate a NO vote to prevent further hyper-regulation from the EU.
While out of touch IFA leaders are acting as cheerleaders for EU measures the EU Nitrates Directive has placed a huge financial burden on Irish farmers who must comply by taking our bank loans and building slurry sheds.

On top of this Government ministers who advocate a Yes vote, and ask the people to trust them have trashed their contractual obligations to pay the farmers for the sheds they have built under the Farm Waste Management Scheme.

I ask the IFA, why should farmers being financially crippled by the Nitrates Directive vote for Lisbon and more hyper-regulation?

Why should farmers now trust the Irish government who have broken recent contracts and left thousands of farmers in hoc to the banks with huge debts?

Farmers for NO are appalled that IFA leaders who failed to consult local members in a ballot are colluding for a Yes vote with untrustworthy government ministers who have shafted Irish farmers and left them in debt.

Farmers have found to their cost that this government cannot be trusted.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president last June said, "No Lisbon [Treaty], no enlargement,". He added that "the Nice Treaty limited the EU to a membership of 27 states."

Like Sarkozy and Merkel, Farmers for No say that Lisbon is a prerequisite for enlargement. If we vote No to Lisbon, enlargement cannot take place. Turkey cannot enter the EU. Therefore Lisbon is a proxy vote on Turkish entry.

We have produced evidence, where is the IFA leaders evidence for their claims to the contrary?'

'Given that in a debate with me on LMFM on Tuesday morning, Meath IFA leader Eddie Downey said he would welcome Turkish accession talks, would welcome Turkish entry to the EU and did not want to deny anyone the benefits of Europe.

FF, FG and Labour are all on the record as supporting Turkish entry to the EU. Is it now IFA policy to support the EU entry of Turkey?

Does the IFA disagree or agree with former EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein who said, "After Turkish entry the EU will simply be unable to sustain its current agricultural and regional policy. Europe would implode."?

Farmer for NO holds that if the IFA supports the Lisbon and Turkish entry of Turkey to the EU it will cause the decimation of CAP payments and the destruction of Irish agriculture.


ends
Farmers for No spokesman, David Thompson is currently vice chairman of Limerick IFA and vice chairman of Farmers for No.

Background
Millward Brown study in 2008 found that 48 per cent of farmers voted No to Lisbon.
Farmers for No group has garnered many hundreds of pledges of support since its launch.

FYI: EU aims to harmonise succession law across the Europe

Fears for Lisbon vote prompt delay in EU law
The Irish Times

JAMIE SMYTH in Brussels

Wed, May 20, 2009

INHERITANCE: THE EUROPEAN Commission has delayed a proposal to enable the EU-wide recognition of inheritance claims for fear of upsetting Irish voters ahead of a second Lisbon referendum.

The draft legislation is intended to cope with the increasingly common situation whereby EU citizens live in one country with certain inheritance rules, but they own property in other EU states.

It proposes to introduce common rules for member states to follow on which law should be used to judge such cross-border inheritance claims.

If the Government opted in to the measure, it could ultimately enable foreign laws to be implemented in Irish courts, which is a particularly sensitive issue for the legal profession.

“It was felt that the proposal was too sensitive in the lead-up to the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which is expected to be held in the autumn. So it was delayed,” one EU diplomat told The Irish Times yesterday.

Senior commission officials, including secretary general Catherine Day, are understood to have pulled the proposal in the spring.

The commission’s 2009 work programme initially proposed that the draft law would be published in March before being sent to the Council of Ministers for debate.

The decision to delay the proposal follows a similar move last year to quietly drop the commission’s controversial proposal to harmonise the corporate tax base in the EU.

This plan was seized on by No campaigners during the first Lisbon referendum and portrayed as a key threat to Ireland’s tax sovereignty even though the Government could choose to opt out of it.

The proposal on recognition of inheritance claims is controversial because it relates to family law, another area where Ireland is seeking specific guarantees related to the treaty.

The European Voice said the draft law could potentially have enabled relatives to “claw back” property or items given away by the deceased during their lifetime – a mechanism allowed under many EU states’ succession laws, but precluded by Irish and UK law.

According to commission estimates, the proposed legislation would affect about 450,000 successions every year.

Rules on which national law should apply in cross-border succession cases vary: some EU states follow the principle that the law should be determined by the nationality of the deceased, while others apply the law of the state where the deceased lived.

A Government spokeswoman said last night the Government had nothing to do with the commission’s decision to withdraw the proposal.

A commission spokesman also denied that the delay was due to the Irish referendum.

However, several EU diplomats confirmed the story, with one noting that everyone was focused on ensuring that potential landmines were avoided in the run-up to the autumn referendum, which will decide the fate of the treaty.

This matter was also reported in the European Voice 14th May 2009.

JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS Inheritance
Irish treaty vote puts inheritance law on hold

14.05.2009

Commission fears negative Irish reactions over law on inheritance.
Plans for EU-wide recognition of inheritance claims have fallen victim to Ireland's projected second referendum on the Lisbon treaty. The European Commission has postponed a controversial plan to have wills and inheritance claims recognised across member states until after the Irish referendum, expected in the autumn.

Both Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Catherine Day, the secretary-general, requested that the proposal be put on hold, for fear of negative reactions in the Irish Republic on the sensitive matter of family inheritance ahead of the crucial referendum.