Ireland pork meat and the Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon (also known as the Reform Treaty) is a treaty designed to streamline the workings of the European Union (EU) with amendments to the Treaty on European Union (TEU, Maastricht) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC, Rome), the latter being renamed Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the process. The stated aim of the treaty is “to complete the process started by the Treaty of Amsterdam and by the Treaty of Nice with a view to enhancing the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the Union and to improving the coherence of its action.”
Prominent changes introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon include more qualified majority voting in the EU Council, increased involvement of the European Parliament in the legislative process through extended codecision with the EU Council, reduction of the number ofCommissioners from 27 to 18, eliminating the pillar system, and the creation of a President of the European Union and a High Representative for Foreign Affairs to present a united position on EU policies. If ratified, the Treaty of Lisbon would also make the Union’s human rights charter, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, legally binding.
The Treaty of Lisbon was signed on 13 December 2007 and was planned to have been ratified by all the members of EU by the end of 2008, so it could come into force in 2009. 25 of the total 27 member states have completed the ratification, with Czech Republic still pending. However, the rejection of the Treaty on 12 June 2008 by the Irish electorate means that the treaty cannot currently come into force.
Now one can imagine that behind this were some groups which can further profit from this. And we can imagine also the damage done by Dublin by vote against it. And now the dioxin scandal. Dioxin is always in the meat, because it passes from the treated grass to animals, in milk or meat. But there are some limits of contamination. In the EU press there is no word about this, only that the pork meat from Ireland is infested with dioxin. This means very big looses for pork meat producers since is just before the Christmas, the biggest pork meat consuming in the year in EU.
Could it be that the groups behind the Lisbon Treaty orchestrated this? Of course not.