The ESM and Fiscal Treaty

national | eu | press release Thursday March 29, 2012 09:38 by Sonya Oldham - People's Association Watchdog pawireland at hotmail dot com

Why we need a Referendum or very least postponement

The People's Association Watchdog are calling for a deferment of amendment Article 136, and ratification of the ESM untill after the referendum on the 'The Fiscal Compact' so the people of Ireland can make an informed choice without fear or favour.
We further require that the government ensure our sovereign right to say yes or no by ensuring a referendum on the ESM.
This letter is avilable for all to send to our public representatives.

Dear Representative,

I call upon you to listen to those whom you represent, who elected you to your current position and trusted that you would ensure a voice for your constituency.

I must ask you to postpone any amendment to Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union or ratification of the ESM Treaty untill after the people have voted on 'The Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union'. That would allow we the people of Ireland to have fair voice, without any inherent threat i.e. having already signed up to an €11billion payout, from which Ireland would not be able to access funding, if we voted 'No'. It would also ensure that a fair debate could take place and people would be free to make their own informed decision without such undue and unfair pressure.

I request a referendum on the proposed amendment to Article 136 of the TFEU and the ESM Treaty. Surely you know that the ESM is the actual mechanism whereby the conditionality is attached and I would assert that a referendum is required on all three parts of the ESM treaty as they come into direct conflict with Articles 1, 5, 6.1 and 6.2 of Bunreacht na hEireann.

You will recall the words of Mr. Justice Hederman in relation to the ratification of the Single European Act: "... it appears to me that the essential point at issue is whether the State can by any act on the part of its various organs of government enter into binding agreements with other states, or groups of states, to subordinate, or to submit, the exercise of the powers bestowed by the Constitution to the advice or interests of other states, as distinct from electing from time to time to pursue its own particular policies in union or in concert with other states in their pursuit of their own similar or even identical policies. The State's organs cannot contract to exercise in a particular procedure their policy-making roles, or in any way to fetter powers bestowed unfettered by the Constitution. They are the guardians of these powers not the disposers of them ...".

In this way, the Court held that it is not within the competence of the Government, or indeed of the Oireachtas, to free themselves from the restraints of the Constitution, nor to transfer their powers to other bodies, unless expressly empowered so to do by the Constitution. They are both creatures of the Constitution and are not empowered to act free from the restraints of the Constitution. (9 April 1987, Supreme Court 1986 No. 12036P). The ESM does in fact facilitate and enable the transfer of governmental powers to another body.

Indeed, Mr Justice Walsh reminded us that: "... Article 6 of the Constitution refers to the powers of government as being derived from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good. It must follow therefore that all the powers of government are to be exercised according to the requirements of the common good. The essential nature of sovereignty is the right to say Yes or to say No... "

Using the above principles, the questions which require an answer are:
(a) Does the ESM treaty transfer governmental powers to other bodies?
(b) Is the state entering into binding agreements which will subordinate the powers of the constitution to the interests of other states?
(c) Is the state disposing of their powers which has been bestowed upon them by the constitution?
(d) Is the ESM being exercised according to the common good of the Irish people, or purely in order to 'save' the currency known as the Euro?
(e) Will the Irish people be able to exercise our soverign right to say yes or no without fear or favour?

In considering the above questions, you must also consider, whether or not it is repugnant to the articles of the constitution and to this effect I must draw your attention to the following Articles which it would entirely undermine:

Article 1. The Irish nation hereby affirms its inalienable, indefeasible, and sovereign right to choose its own form of Government, to determine its relations with other nations, and to develop its life, political, economic and cultural, in accordance with its own genius and traditions.
With respect, the Irish nation will not be determining and developing it's economy in accordance with it's own genius and traditions, because if it is subject to the conditionalities of the ESM, this places such endeavour entirely beyond Ireland's control. Indeed, the nation is decidedly not being given the choice of determining it's relations with other nations, because the people are being denied the opportunity to decide whether or not they agree to a binding agreement which allows for a significant loss of Ireland's economic sovereignity.

Article 5. Ireland is a sovereign, independent, democratic state.
Again, with all due respect, in ratifying the ESM, Ireland is handing over economic control of its finances, in order to comply with the terms of the Treaty's conditionality, which is, in effect, giving away the nation's hitherto economic soverignity.

Article 6. 1. All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good.
This is probably the most insidious part of the ESM, because not only does it cede the power of the people to decide questions of national economic policy in accordance with the common good, it is giving away economic sovereignty to an oligarcy, which is an undemocratic organisation that holds itself immune from either scrutiny or accountability and whose aim is the stability of the euro and not the common good of the people.

Article 6.2. These powers of government are exercisable only by or on the authority of the organs of State established by this Constitution.
The totality of the three steps establishing ESM should not be allowed to happen without referring each step to the people of Ireland by way of Referendum because it is in violation of;
Article 15.4.1 of the Irish Consitution: The Oireachtas shall not enact any law which is in any respect repugnant to this Constitution or any provision thereof.

I would like to draw your particular attention to the central Article of the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) which clearly show a loss of sovereignty to the people of Ireland if it is ratified:
Article 3. The purpose of the ESM shall be to mobilise funding and provide financial assistance, under strict economic policy conditionality, to the benefit of the ESM Members which are experiencing or are threatened by severe financing problems, if indispensable to safeguard the financial stability of the euro area as a whole.

The Consitution requires that the guiding principle of governmental decisions be the common good of the people.

In summary, I as a citizen of Ireland am calling for a deferment of amendment of Article 136, and ratification of the ESM untill after the referendum on the 'The Fiscal Compact' so the people of Ireland can make an informed choice without fear or favour.
I further require that the government ensure our sovereign right to say yes or no by ensuring a referendum on the ESM.

Yours sincerely

People's Association Watchdog