By Jim McConalogue of The European Journal
A neat and digestible book, published this year on the corruption and waste in the European Union, The Great European Rip-off, written by David Craig and Matthew Elliott, is well worth mentioning in relation to our understanding of the Irish referendum.
Craig and Elliott refer to how, last year, Ireland and Denmark were given a tough lesson on the excessive powers they had already ceded to the EU. Alongside Denmark, Ireland had introduced new immigration laws to control the number of arranged marriages. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) declared those laws to be in breach of EU law, forcing their repeal – with the possibility that Ireland would have to pay compensation to those who would claim that their “human rights” were breached by the illegal national laws (page 92).
Last year, Ireland also clashed with the ECJ when it tried to clamp down on foreign workers claiming social security benefits for many months after leaving the country. The ECJ ruled that foreign workers must be entitled to Irish benefits even when they had returned home, because of freedom of movement laws (page 92).
There has also been much disregard in the referendum debate over how Lisbon will bring Ireland ever-closer to the European culture of immense public sector growth and high rates of taxation. This specially affects Ireland now. Previously, when Ireland attempted to maintain a low rate of corporation tax in order to encourage inward investment, the other member states with higher rates – imposed so as to support a massive public sector – threatened action in the ECJ to force Ireland to raise its rates. The claim is that Ireland is in breach of EU competition laws (page 94).
Ireland has maintained relatively low rates – but given the European Commission’s agenda for 2008 and the fact that it has bulldozed Ireland’s referendum with large scale interference, it is probable that the ECJ will finally be used by stronger tax-heavy states to force Ireland to raise corporation tax to around 30% (page 94). For high-tax Europe, low-tax Ireland means unfair competition. This control over Ireland’s corporation tax is inevitable, if the Irish people should agree to Lisbon.
It has obvious implications for the next UK Government. Where does the UK stand on those laws, before Lisbon and in a post-Lisbon Europe, and its own legislative powers, for example, over arranged marriages, social security benefits and a substantial rise in corporation tax. Brussels plans for financial regulation over the City are already chasing away business from UK shores.
However, it has more urgent consequences for the Irish people and they must decide for themselves in a pre-referendum Europe. Do they really want to have given away controls over key areas of Irish social and economic policy, which has seemingly lost much of its independence?
