Abortion and the Lisbon Treaty
Below you can read Bonde’s letter to the editor of the Irish Independent where he was wrongly accused of saying that an Irish yes to the Lisbon Treaty would outlaw the Irish rules on abortion.
I was quoted the other day for having said that an Irish yes to the Lisbon Treaty would outlaw the Irish rules on abortion. I did NOT say that. I would never interfere in an Irish debate for or against abortion.
I talked about small nations and the Lisbon treaty and I proposed to safeguard all kinds of specialities in authoritative interpretations from the Council or legally binding protocols. I also advised you to have these interpretations and protocols agreed BEFORE the referendum. I said it would be very easy for your Prime Minister to obtain since Ireland may be the only country having a referendum.
That was – and still is - a very good advice and I mentioned some examples on small nation specialities like the Irish rules on foreign investment, the low corporation tax, your protocol on abortion or the Danish protocol on secondary housing - summer houses.
I also said that the new treaty establishes a new ADDITIONAL citizenship and insert a new principle on equality among all Union citizens. These principles could be used by the Court to overrule small nation specialities unless they are properly safeguarded.
In Denmark, we cannot change our legislation on summer houses with a comma – then it will fall away entirely! We thought our rules for taxation on pensions were accepted. They were outlawed by the Court. We were told that the right to strike was outside community competence. We were again outlawed by the Court, latest in the so-called Laval-case from 18 December allowing foreigners to work in Denmark – and Ireland – for lower salaries that those normally used.
Over the years I have foreseen a lot of possible verdicts from the Court, surprisingly precisely. Why? Because the Court always rules to minimise differences and to promote harmonisation and integration. Shame on those MEP’s who reacted against my very well founded advice and simply spinned it to be for or against abortion. Don’t they listen? Don’t they know better?
