Daniel Hannan froths about secondary issues

The headline of anti-EU UK Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan’s Telgraph blog post states categorically:

“EU breaks its own rules to funnel money into Irish referendum”



What the assertion boils down to is unverified information that lawyers in the Commission and Council legal services have expressed reservations, which is not the same thing.

Are these doubts official positions, or individual musings? We have no way to tell.

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Hannan continues by wondering why “Eurocrats” wants the Lisbon Treaty so badly.

He twists the facts. Hannan knows full well that all 27 EU member states agreed on the Lisbon Treaty in order to improve how the European Union works. He is aware of the fact that 26 national parliaments have approved the amending treaty, in most cases by large, qualified majorities and in a number of member states by two houses of parliament. The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Lisbon Treaty.

Of course they want the Irish to approve the Lisbon Treaty, and Ireland is the only EU country where approval is still needed.

Hannan should ask the member states if they oppose information from the Commission to the EU citizens about the Treaty of Lisbon or other EU matters.

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If the information is correct, there is nothing to complain about.

If it is false, Hannan and everyone else is invited to show the errors.

Is Daniel Hannan afraid of informing the public about the Lisbon Treaty?

Daniel Hannan, the EU Commission and I share a common trait: We are not Irish. But the Lisbon Treaty is an issue of European interest.

Hannan clearly wants to incite the Irish to vote No in the Lisbon 2009 referendum (and to do the dirty work for the UK Conservatives), but he wants to restrict the free flow of information from the Commission (more objective information at that).

Double standards?



Ralf Grahn