heres some stuff from: http://www.generationyes.ie/fight-the-lies/
LIE: The legal guarantees aren’t worth the paper that they are printed on.
TRUTH: The guarantees have the same legal status as an EU Treaty in international law. The 27 EU leaders have already stated that the guarantees are ‘legally binding and will take effect on the date of entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.’ If Ireland votes yes on October 2nd, the guarantees will be registered at the UN and will immediately have the full force of International law. They will also be given the full force of EU law following the accession of either Iceland or Croatia to the EU. Ireland will have the ability to bring the EU to the International Court of Justice if it feels that the guarantees have been broken.
LIE: Irish minimum wage will be reduced to €1.84 if Lisbon is passed.
THE TRUTH: The EU has not currently, nor will it under Lisbon, any power over the minimum wages of member states. Ireland’s minimum wage was set down in Irish law under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, and the EU can do nothing to change thisIn fact Lisbon provides for even greater social protection than is currently guaranteed in EU law.
LIE: The Lisbon Treaty will reduce Ireland’s voting strength to 0.8% in the Council of Ministers.
THE TRUTH: Voting is carried out in a two-stage process. In the first stage, all states have one vote and 55% of Member States are needed to approve a draft law. In the second stage, votes are weighted according to population size however for a law to pass it must have the support of 65% of the population of the EU but no proposal can be forced through by a small number of large states if they don’t have wider support. Ireland still retains a veto over sensitive areas.
LIE: Lisbon removes Ireland’s right to a permanent EU Commissioner.
THE TRUTH: The Lisbon Treaty is THE ONLY WAY for every member states to keep a national Commissioner. LIE: Irish fishermen have been ‘milked dry’ and if we vote Yes to Lisbon, farmers will be next.
LIE: Irish farmers will be ‘milked dry’ by the Lisbon Treaty.
THE TRUTH: The Lisbon Treaty makes very few changes in the area of agriculture and fisheries. The only significant difference is that the European Parliament will now vote on the budget for the Common Agricultural Policy which means farmers will have a greater chance to influence decisions by lobbying their elected MEPs.
LIE: 95% of Europeans would vote no. Stand up for Europe.
THE TRUTH: Out of the countries that voted on the European Constitution 27million voted Yes as opposed to 23million who voted No. More importantly, the Lisbon Treaty referendum is not about the rest of Europe but about Ireland’s future. If we want to secure Irish jobs, get our economy back on track, increase the input of the Dáil into European legislation and keep our Commissioner, we need to vote Yes on October 2nd.
LIE: Unelected Brussels bureaucrats make up to 80% of laws.
THE TRUTH:EU law is democratically agreed by our elected representatives, and represents less than half the laws implemented in Ireland each year
See our Research
LIE: EU laws are made by unelected elites.
THE TRUTH: Every EU law has to be approved by either the people’s directly elected MEPs, and/or by the elected government representatives of the member states. That means no law can be passed without approval by your elected representatives. The Treaty increases the Parliament’s power further.
LIE: The EU wants to introduce conscription in Ireland.
THE TRUTH: There is no EU army, and there is no move toward conscription. Very few countries have conscription in their national armies, and many of them are phasing it out.Furthermore, close to one fifth of EU countries are neutral states, like Ireland.
We will be responding to lies as they happen here.
LIE: The legal guarantees aren’t worth the paper that they are printed on.
TRUTH: The guarantees have the same legal status as an EU Treaty in international law. The 27 EU leaders have already stated that the guarantees are ‘legally binding and will take effect on the date of entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.’ If Ireland votes yes on October 2nd, the guarantees will be registered at the UN and will immediately have the full force of International law. They will also be given the full force of EU law following the accession of either Iceland or Croatia to the EU. Ireland will have the ability to bring the EU to the International Court of Justice if it feels that the guarantees have been broken.
LIE: Irish minimum wage will be reduced to €1.84 if Lisbon is passed.
THE TRUTH: The EU has not currently, nor will it under Lisbon, any power over the minimum wages of member states. Ireland’s minimum wage was set down in Irish law under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, and the EU can do nothing to change thisIn fact Lisbon provides for even greater social protection than is currently guaranteed in EU law.
LIE: The Lisbon Treaty will reduce Ireland’s voting strength to 0.8% in the Council of Ministers.
THE TRUTH: Voting is carried out in a two-stage process. In the first stage, all states have one vote and 55% of Member States are needed to approve a draft law. In the second stage, votes are weighted according to population size however for a law to pass it must have the support of 65% of the population of the EU but no proposal can be forced through by a small number of large states if they don’t have wider support. Ireland still retains a veto over sensitive areas.
LIE: Lisbon removes Ireland’s right to a permanent EU Commissioner.
THE TRUTH: The Lisbon Treaty is THE ONLY WAY for every member states to keep a national Commissioner. LIE: Irish fishermen have been ‘milked dry’ and if we vote Yes to Lisbon, farmers will be next.
LIE: Irish farmers will be ‘milked dry’ by the Lisbon Treaty.
THE TRUTH: The Lisbon Treaty makes very few changes in the area of agriculture and fisheries. The only significant difference is that the European Parliament will now vote on the budget for the Common Agricultural Policy which means farmers will have a greater chance to influence decisions by lobbying their elected MEPs.
LIE: 95% of Europeans would vote no. Stand up for Europe.
THE TRUTH: Out of the countries that voted on the European Constitution 27million voted Yes as opposed to 23million who voted No. More importantly, the Lisbon Treaty referendum is not about the rest of Europe but about Ireland’s future. If we want to secure Irish jobs, get our economy back on track, increase the input of the Dáil into European legislation and keep our Commissioner, we need to vote Yes on October 2nd.
LIE: Unelected Brussels bureaucrats make up to 80% of laws.
THE TRUTH:EU law is democratically agreed by our elected representatives, and represents less than half the laws implemented in Ireland each year
See our Research
- New research demonstrates definitively that Libertas’ claim that “Unelected Brussels bureaucrats make up to 80% of laws” is completely false.
- Gen Yes’s team of researchers have analysed all legislation from the last 17 years to show that on average, the real proportion of laws that comes from Brussels is less than half of what Libertas claims. In a year-by-year analysis, not once does the amount of legislation coming from Brussels rise even as far as 50%. Furthermore, not one single EU law can be passed without approval from our elected MEPs or our elected politicians in the European Council.
- We analysed the texts of Irish Acts and Statutory Instruments between 1992 and 2009, that period covers 588 Acts and 10,725 Statutory Instruments.
- We analysed the texts of these 11,313 pieces of legislation for any mention whatsoever of European legislation (Directives, Regulations, Council Decisions). If there is a single mention, we have counted that Act or Statutory Instrument as “European” which if anything will overstate the proportion of legislation that is “European”.
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- Results:
- Of the 588 Acts, 114 contain at least one reference to European legislation (19.39%). Of the 10,725 Statutory Instruments, 3,050 contain at least one reference to European legislation (28.44%). Of the total of Irish legislation from 1992 to 2009, then, only 3,164 out of 11,313 Acts and Instruments contain any reference whatsoever to European legislation - 27.97%.
- This is the maximum possible amount of Irish legislation that could possibly be related to “Brussels legislation”. Further analysis would reduce this total, because some Acts/SIs will not in fact be implementing EU legislation, but only making some reference to it, or only part of the legislation text is implementing EU legislation, while the majority of the Act/SI implements purely national legislation.
- Looked at year by year, it can be seen that in no year does the amount of Irish legislation in any sense ‘containing traces of EU’ rise as far as 50%.
- One final point is that the claim may refer to EU regulation which is
directly applicable without requiring an Act/SI. Even if we include
these regulations (3,009), the amount of legislation in any way
“European” only reaches 43%. Nearly half what Libertas claims. - Methodology:
- The advantage to our methodology is that - first and foremost - anyone can repeat the exercise themselves. The Acts and Statutory Instruments for the period are all available online.
LIE: EU laws are made by unelected elites.
THE TRUTH: Every EU law has to be approved by either the people’s directly elected MEPs, and/or by the elected government representatives of the member states. That means no law can be passed without approval by your elected representatives. The Treaty increases the Parliament’s power further.
LIE: The EU wants to introduce conscription in Ireland.
THE TRUTH: There is no EU army, and there is no move toward conscription. Very few countries have conscription in their national armies, and many of them are phasing it out.Furthermore, close to one fifth of EU countries are neutral states, like Ireland.
We will be responding to lies as they happen here.
