An open letter to the Irish

An open letter to the Irish

Hello,

In the spirit of European diversity, my letter to you is in English. And, in the spirit of European integration, I am trying to not care about your “no” to this treaty that I believed in so sincerely. I am not disappointed with you in any way, it is your constitutional right to tell your political leaders and the rest of Europe EXACTLY what you think about these EU treaties. I’m just a bit sad, I guess.

It feels bizarre getting all worked up over a treaty. But, it’s actually quite understandable. I don’t mean to ramble on about my life or anything, but people of Ireland, I’m quite new to the EU and its inner-workings. Last year, I couldn’t give a hoot about the EU institutions. Now, I do because I’ve gotten excited about European integration! That is why I joined “Sauvons l’Europe” – because I believed in slowly creating a democratically legitimate European Union. I thought, and I guess I still do, that the Lisbon Treaty was the best short-term step towards that ultimate goal. Now I’ve encountered my first reality check on the European project, and I don’t know how to react.

I know that this “no” doesn’t necessarily mean that the treaty won’t pass. There are other ways…compromises…second (third?) referendums. But whenever I hear talk about these “plan Bs”, I instantly get turned off. It seems like most people don’t really care about your “no”, which is saddening to me. I always thought that in the end, politicians would still care about the voice of the people. Apparentely not. So, if I’m disappointed with someone, it’s definitely not with you, it’s with them! How dare they? To me, the treaty has lost most, if not all, of its legitimacy. And no one cares.

Naïvely yours,

A lost European activist