A leading expert in European affairs has told Deputy Beverley Flynn that renegotiation of the Lisbon Treaty is not an option for the Government.
Dep Flynn made the comments after a meeting of the sub-committee which was addressed by the Professor of European Politics in UCD, Brigid Laffan.
“In her contribution to the committee Professor Laffan made the point that we have lost favour with many of our European colleagues in the context of the number of seats they will win in the European elections next year. She said that renegotiation of the treaty is out of the question because ‘negotiation’ suggests that there will be other people around the table to discuss the treaty with us, when the reality is there is no one who will sit at the table to discuss the treaty with us.
“She also made a very good point about the member states that have overwhelmingly ratified the treaty. No government can renegotiate a treaty that its parliament has ratified without first returning to that parliament on the matter.
“While there may be an idea in the public domain that we can ‘renegotiate’ the treaty, and that is a notion that Sinn Fein in particular is promoting, this is simply not the case,” said Dep Flynn.
