European Union Lisbon Treaty

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+Bachelor of Business European Union Studies Submission Date: 22 Nov 2010 Word Count: 1,615 The much debated treaty of Lisbon, which had come into place on 1st December 2009, was among the principal treaties leading to the European Union (EU), and has had a significant impact on how the EU is now governed. To come into force, the Treaty of Lisbon had to be approved by the twenty-seven Member States. It was each member States decision according to its own legitimate rules if this sanction would be done through a referendum or through a parliamentary vote. The Treaty includes key changes aimed at increasing the consistency of the EU's external actions. As one of the member states, Ireland had to vote on this treaty and it became evident as an RTE poll revealed that only 5 percent of people actually understood what it was about and the impact it would have on all the 27 member states of the EU. For a treaty that was deemed so important for all member states of the EU, in my opinion, the public, who were to vote on this, were not educated enough on the treaty and were not actually aware of what it would do for their country if they were to vote ‘yes’. I found it somewhat unfair that Ireland was the only country to have a vote on such an important issue, although the Irish Republic was obliged to hold a referendum because of an Irish Supreme Court ruling in 1987, saying that any major amendment to an EU treaty entails an amendment to the Irish constitution. In my view, it was quite clear that so many countries were denied the right to vote as the government knew what the outcome would be, so when they introduced the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland they basically sent leaflets through the door of every household in Ireland outlining the pros and cons of the treaty but in an unreadable form so that most people would not understand it and just vote ‘yes’ for the
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