Letter from NESSA CHILDERS MEP re; Lisbon Treaty

Posted by Bronwen Maher on September 28, 2009 at 10:45 AM

Patricia McKenna’s claim (September 26th) that the Lisbon Treaty will not help the EU to fight climate change is one of the more bizarre and disingenuous assertions made by any element in the eclectic No camp during the course of this referendum campaign.
 
In the context of my work as Ireland’s only member of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, I can immediately recognise the value of ratification of the Treaty from an environmental perspective.
 
Article 191 explicitly, and for the first time, commits the European Union to “promoting measures at international level to deal with regional and worldwide environmental problems, and in particular combating climate change.” Article 194 deals with energy, and seeks to “promote the development of new and renewable forms of energy.” Simply put, we cannot have one without the other.
 
As a former MEP, Patricia McKenna knows that all EU legislation is derived from the Treaties. This new legal commitment under Lisbon means the EU will be much better equipped to tackle climate change in a more competent and aggressive fashion.
 
Not for the first time in recent weeks, I find myself wondering whether Patricia McKenna has been reading the same version of the Lisbon Treaty as I have.

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