Commission President tried to alleviate real Irish fears.
Commission President misleading the Irish
Friday, 18 April 2008
Jos Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission held today a speech at the University of Cork, where he outlined details on the Lisbon Treaty and answered questions from the audience. EUD President Jens-Peter Bonde happened to be in the audience and noticed a disturbing fact. Namely, Mr. Barroso told the Irish students that the Lisbon Treaty brings nothing new on the issue of taxation.
As any person who read the actual text of the document, this is not quite so. Article 113 adds the debatable issue of distortion of competition. By using this clause, the European Court of Justice has power of decision on many fields, taxation being one of them. A major target for the Court to focus on (given recent voices from France related to this) would be the low Irish corporate tax.
The EUD believes that no matter the outcome of the referendum in Ireland, the Irish citizens have at least the right to know the truth. The Lisbon Treaty attacks the issue of taxation directly, as trough Article 113 it brings about sufficient means for other EU member states to attack the system in Ireland.