Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

As regards the issue of a Commissioner per member state, in the event of the Lisbon treaty not being ratified the Nice treaty arrangements will be operable. Those arrangements state that when the membership reaches 27 the Council will have to agree to a reduction of that number and provide a solution along the lines of the Nice treaty. Therefore one cannot guarantee a Commissioner per member state if the Lisbon treaty is not ratified. If it is ratified, these conclusions confirm that the Heads of State and Government are prepared to undertake a procedure which will ensure that every member state has a Commissioner. That situation cannot continue under the Nice treaty. The Lisbon treaty currently states that a Commissioner per member state will be available to every member of the Union until 2014, whereupon on a principle of rotation a reduced number, to 18, will be agreed. That is an important point which arose during the course of the referendum. I am glad to note that the commitment given by the European Council last week is quite clear in that respect.

As regards other matters, we are involved in work in progress and further detailed texts will have to be worked out. We can keep the Deputy and his party apprised of that. The Deputy raised questions concerning the right to life, the family, the right to denominational education and other issues, some of which concern minority groups in this country.

The issue of workers' rights is about ensuring that, by ratifying the treaty, we incorporate the charter — which is part of the treaty — into the treaties of the European Union. On any objective reading of the situation, it is accepted that that would greatly enhance and protect workers' rights in future. The difference in some respects is that the workers' rights issue is not simply an Irish-specific question, it is one for all 27 member states. The other issues are Irish-specific ones, but that is not to say for one moment that we do not accord importance to this matter, which was raised during the last campaign. There are dossiers going through various sectoral councils at the moment dealing with delineating the exact implications of certain cases that were brought before the European Court of Justice, which were specific to those particular states. However, they obviously caused concern as to whether they would have a wider application or — in respect of the issues that were dealt with in those cases — what policy response will emerge between member states that would be agreed at Council level. Those dossiers will continue to be addressed in the forthcoming Czech Presidency and probably during the Swedish Presidency as well. That is the context in which these matters arose.

See this speech in context