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Right now, three issues causing serious concern for many Irish people are Wages, Jobs and Taxes. To be precise, wages are being slashed, there are not enough jobs, and there are too many taxes. How does the Lisbon Treaty impact on these three issues of concern? First of all its important to know that nothing in this treaty will help us to recover economically. Lisbon is all about transferring power to politicians - not about helping Ireland. The facts are: we’re still a full member of the EU without Lisbon; we still have access all EU markets; we can still borrow from EU Banks, and foreign investment, from companies like Hewlett Packard, has increased since our NO vote last year, bringing badly-needed jobs. 
Wages - It's a fact that the EU Courts are facilitating – even driving - a race to the bottom in terms of wages. The EU Court has found in the Ruffert, Laval and Viking judgments that the right to earn a living wage is less important than the right of big business to make a profit – even when that means exploiting workers.
- In the Ruffert case, the EU Court ruled on a case involving a Polish company which had brought Polish workers to Germany and paid them less than half of the German minimum wage. The EU Court found against the workers.
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In 2004, the EU issued a directive called the Bolkenstein Directive which proposed the country of origin principle - allowing Latvian workers to be brought to Ireland (for example) and applying the Latvian minimum wage. This was dropped after huge controversy, but it showed the mindset of the EU Commission and the EU Court is now implementing that directive on a case by case basis. -
If Lisbon is passed Protocol 27 attached to the treaty will come into effect. This copperfastens Ruffert and the other judgments and leaves even the right to earn the Irish minimum wage open to attack. That’s because in reality, if big business can import workers here and pay them country of origin minimum wage (which may be even lower than €1.84) Irish workers can accept those rates or see their jobs go elsewhere.
see more on this topic below Jobs- More than 150,000 Irish people are employed by multinationals – and they are attracted here by our low corporation tax rates. Other EU member states, such as France and Germany, have long complained that this low tax rate has given Ireland an unfair edge when it came to attracting jobs.
- Article 113 of the Lisbon Treaty could allow the EU to attack our current low tax regime, with disastrous effects for Irish workers, since it would cause those job-creating multinational companies to leave, and take their jobs with them.
- The government is desperately denying that this is the case, but the truth was exposed by none other than the Irish EU Commissioner and former Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy. He admitted in an Irish Independent interview that the EU’s ‘long term hidden agenda’ is to ‘take control of taxation’. And on April 7th 2008, the French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, let the cat out of the bag when she announced plans to push hard to encourage EU states to agree a common method of computing corporate taxes – the Common Consolidated Tax Base. "It has been going on for a long time, it's an issue that we are determined to push" she said.
- Senior economists such as Jim Power and Professor Ray Kinsella have both warned that the Lisbon Treaty could impact on our low tax rate. The Galway Independent (23/04/2008) reported: “Asked if concerns about taxation measures in the Lisbon Treaty raised in recent days were relevant, Mr Power said that Lisbon would facilitate CCTB (the Common Consolidated Tax Base), and that that “would indeed be very bad news”.
see more on this topic below Taxes - As stated above the Lisbon Treaty can used to attack our low corporate tax base.
- Article 311 of the Lisbon Treaty also gives the EU the power to impose its own EU taxes directly on us. At a time when we're already facing tax hikes and levies, we'll have to pay additional taxes to the EU.
- Since we’ll lose also lose power under Lisbon, this would literally be taxation without representation!
- This would be a new form of federal tax - and we will have almost no power to set the rate of tax - or to stop it climbing.
see more on this topic below FURTHER INFORMATION ON THESE THREE TOPICS AND OTHERS Right now, three issues causing serious concern for many Irish people are Jobs and Taxes. To be precise, there are not enough jobs and there are too many taxes. Yes campaigners are trying to bully the Irish people by saying we need Lisbon to boost the economy. What they're not telling you is that other EU member states who approved the Lisbon Treaty, such as Spain, have seen unemployment rise to a shocking 18-20%. Nothing in this treaty will help us to recover. Lisbon is all about transferring power to politicians - not about helping Ireland. The facts are: - We’re still a full member of the EU without Lisbon - and we can’t be thrown out!
- We still have access all EU markets.
- We can still borrow from EU Banks.
- And foreign investment, from companies like Hewlett Packard, has increased since our NO vote last year, bringing badly-needed jobs.
But the Lisbon Treaty could make our situation worse. Despite the government’s spin, the truth is that the treaty may have serious implications for our economy. That means that we’ll pay the price for decisions made without our consent.We’ve already lost our fishing industry to the EU, and we’ve seen EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson coming close to giving away a huge chunk of Irish farming income at the World Trade Organisation talks. The EU hampers our right to promote Irish goods, and is now threatening our ability to attract foreign companies here to provide jobs. And with unemployment rising – now almost at an unprecedented 500,000 people out of work - the last thing we need is to lose the right to control our immigration laws. Under the Lisbon treaty, serious threats to Jobs and Taxes could become a reality. How? - Lisbon opens up our low tax rates to attack – this would be a disaster, losing us badly-needed jobs;
- The treaty undermines the right of every Irish person to earn even the minimum wage;
- It also means we would hand over full control of our immigration laws to the EU;.
- And Lisbon means the EU could directly interfere in our ability to attract multinational companies here to create jobs.
TAXESOur low tax rates under threat
We rely heavily on multinationals for job creation – and they are attracted here by our low corporation tax rates. Other EU member states, such as France and Germany, have long complained that this low tax rate has given Ireland an unfair edge when it came to attracting jobs.
The Lisbon Treaty could allow the EU to attack our current low tax regime, with disastrous effects for Irish workers, since it would cause those job-creating multinational companies to leave, and take their jobs with them.
Article 113 of the Treaty introduces, for the first time, the notion that taxation policies in any EU member state (such as Ireland) can mean a “distortion of competition”. If that lead to our low tax regime being considered illegal by the EU, this would have a disastrous effect on the already-shrinking number of jobs in Ireland. The government is desperately denying that this is the case, but the truth was exposed by none other than the Irish EU Commissioner and former Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy. He admitted in an Irish Independent interview that the EU’s ‘long term hidden agenda’ is to ‘take control of taxation’. And on April 7th 2008, the French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, let the cat out of the bag when she announced plans to push hard to encourage EU states to agree a common method of computing corporate taxes – the Common Consolidated Tax Base. "It has been going on for a long time, it's an issue that we are determined to push" she said. The Irish Times reported on April 8th 2008 that the Irish Government had lobbied hard at EU level to have the French tax proposal put aside in the run-up to the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, fearing it could persuade some business people to vote no. Now that the government wants to force the Irish people to vote again, those plans have been shelved once more (The Irish Times 09/01/2009). Senior economists such as Jim Power and Professor Ray Kinsella have both warned that the Lisbon Treaty could impact on our low tax rate. The Galway Independent (23/04/2008) reported: “Asked if concerns about taxation measures in the Lisbon Treaty raised in recent days were relevant, Mr Power said that Lisbon would facilitate CCTB (the Common Consolidated Tax Base), and that that “would indeed be very bad news”. Professor Kinsella said prior to the Lisbon Treaty last year that a ‘Yes’ vote would “have negative effects on the Irish economy, competitiveness, jobs, and living standards.” EU interference in tax law
Yes campaigners say that the EU will only have power to interfere with indirect taxes – such as VAT – or taxes which impinge on the working of the common market. But last year, January 2008 the EU Court overruled a Danish law on the taxation of Danes possessing secondary housing in Denmark or/and abroad. This had no connection to the common market at all.
Finland was also forced to change its taxation of pensions in the Danner case, while Denmark lost a tax case on pensions as well.
EU Taxes
Article 311 of the Lisbon Treaty also gives the EU the power to impose its own EU taxes directly on us. Since we’ll lose also lose power under Lisbon, this would literally be taxation without representation! Keep our taxes low or we’ll LOSE jobs provided by international companies here. Vote NO to Lisbon II.
JOBS – AND THE RIGHT TO EARN A LIVING WAGEWages are a big issue for Irish workers who have fought long and hard for the right to earn a decent wage. While Yes campaigners pretend that the Charter of Rights attached to the Lisbon Treaty protects workers, the fact is that the EU Court has found again and again, that big companies have the right to import cheap labour and undercut local workers.
Most recently, the European Court of Justice ruled in the Laval/Vaxholm case that companies were entitled to bring migrant workers to Ireland and pay them no more than the minimum wage, despite locally set wage agreements.
In other similar cases – the Ruffert and Viking cases – the EU Court has found against workers saying that the right of workers to earn a living wage can be set aside in the interest of an employer to trade freely and provide services. (See the bottom of this page for more information on these cases) What the Yes campaign is keeping quiet is that the EU Court actually considered the Charter of Rights attached to Lisbon in the Laval case and found against workers. The so-called Charter of Rights is seriously flawed and will not protect your right to earn a living wage.
And you can forget about protesting! The EU Court stated that the right to strike only exists where it is 'proportionate' and 'justified', and their test for those is heavily weighted in favour of exploitative employers.
To try to sell Lisbon II, the Irish government has made a big deal of a “solemn declararation” on workers’ rights issued by the European Council. The truth is that this declaration means nothing, has no legal standing whatsoever in EU law, and doesn’t change the fact that your right to earn a decent wage is being destroyed by the EU Courts. All of this means Irish workers could be forced to take a big cut in wages or see their jobs go to cheaper imported labour. Protect your job and your right to earn a decent living – Vote NO to Lisbon II.
IMMIGRATION There are now 400,000 people unemployed in Ireland, and our economy is in tatters. This was caused by a greedy and servile government, who care more about pleasing their EU masters than looking after Irish jobs.
To feed the construction boom which overheated our economy the government agreed to allow unrestricted immigration from EU member states into Ireland. According to Minister Brian Lenihan, this policy added to the overheating of the economy (Today FM, 25/06/09). Now Yes campaigners want to make matters even worse by handing full control over our immigration policy to the EU under Article 79 of the treaty.
We’ll be forced to accept the common EU policy on immigration and asylum - even when immigrants are coming from countries outside the EU.
It’s crucial that we keep control of our immigration policy. Ireland has welcomed migrant workers but as unemployment rises daily we need to keep the right to close our borders.
The problem is that if we sign up to the Lisbon Treaty we’ll have signed away the right to decide who can come to Ireland looking for employment. That will be decided by the EU and it simply won’t matter how that affects us, our economy and our unemployment rate. Keep our right to decide on immigration – Vote NO to Lisbon II
FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN IRELANDLisbon may also be used to limit Ireland’s right to encourage Foreign Direct Investment – in other words to prevent us wooing foreign companies here with promises of state aid. Yes campaigners tried to frighten people by insisting that foreign investment would be scared away by a No vote to Lisbon.
This was absolutely untrue.
The number of jobs created by foreign direct investment (FDI) here actually increased by 56 per cent in 2008, according to a report published by Ernst & Young in June 2009.
And the rise is considerable, with over 6,300 jobs created through FDI in Ireland in 2008 compared to just over 4,000 in 2007.
Crucially, Ireland remained more attractive to foreign investment compared to other EU member states – whose parliaments pushed through the Lisbon Treaty.
What we’re seeing is that investors are happier to bring their money to Ireland now that the threat of EU interference in our tax rates is abated.
Given that a significant number of Irish people are employed by such companies, giving power over FDI policy to the EU is a dangerous step for Ireland.
But that’s what would happen if Lisbon passes and Foreign Direct Investment comes under the control of the new Common Commercial Policy.
The truth is, unless Lisbon is defeated, we’re in danger of losing control over our economy. And then we’ll all pay the price. Keep investment and jobs in Ireland. Vote NO to Lisbon II
NOTES
Cases decided by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which undermine the right to earn a living wage.
Laval
In the 'Laval' case, a construction company from low-wage Latvia won a contract to build a school in Sweden. The company refused to sign a collective agreement with the Swedish construction union, but instead did so with a Latvian one which did not observe the Swedish wage rates agreed nationally.
In response, the Swedish union took collective action in the form of a blockade of the site and got sympathy action from other unions. The ECJ have held the Swedish union liable for the Latvian company’s losses.
The ECJ ruling on the case means that unions cannot take action against companies employing imported workers at rates below those for local workers, except to defend wages up to a universally applicable minimum.
For Ireland, this means the National Minimum Wage.
Viking
Prior to Laval, in the 'Viking' case, a Finnish shipping line sought to evade a union agreement by re-registering its ship under the Estonian flag so it could instead employ workers from Estonia at lower cost.
The ECJ agreed with the shipping line, ruling that a worker's right to collective action (strike) was less important than a company’s freedom of access to cheaper workers.
That theme has run through all 3 decisions; the ECJ stated that the right to strike only exists where it is 'proportionate' and 'justified', and their test for those is heavily weighted in favour of exploitative employers.
Ruffert
In the 'Rüffert' case the ECJ cut the member states' power to make law to protect worker rights. It overruled the German regional government of Lower Saxony, which makes its contractors ensure that local union-backed labour standards are maintained. This case could be used to destroy progressive agreements that have been won in Ireland which exceeded the National Minimum Wage. OTHER RESOURCES
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Comments
Boykott to Intel and Ryanair
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/93837
2)
I´m from Germany and I beg you to voto NO. A lot of people all over Europe have hope in you that you defend democracy and souveranity.
EU Commissioner Charly McCreevy said on 26. Juni 2009 to the Irish Times, that if there had been referendums in all European countries the Lisbon treaty would have been rejected in 95% of these countries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rY0FQH2aQU&feature=player_embedded