Since Ireland rejected, last week end, the Lisbon Treaty, the heads of State and government of the Twenty-Seven Member States are looking for an answer to this particular "no" and trying to curb the political crisis which could spread. European and Irish unions recommend putting Social Europe back in the saddle, since it has been particularly ill-treated lately. Whether it is temporary or not, this new rejection will definitely have repercussions on the Union. Although it can keep on working based on the complex Nice Treaty, it won't be able to avoid the mid-term political consequences and spare a questioning in the long run. (Ref. 080507)
Anti-Lisbon union front. The new Unite confederation, born from the merger of Amicus and ATGWU and which is now the second largest Irish union, was content with the victory of the ‘no’ at the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty on June 12. The union actively campaigned against the Treaty, for a very specific reason: “Our union recognized from a very early stage that this treaty would set back workers’ rights in Ireland and across the continent.” Indeed, “We read the treaty, we considered how the European Court was likely to use it to further economic rights at the expense of social rights.”
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