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SDLP MLA BURNS: LET PRO-EUROPEAN IRELAND SPEAK ON 12TH JUNE
 

SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns said the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty on 12th June is an opportunity for the voice of pro-European Ireland north and south to be heard loud and clear.

Mr Burns said: “I hope that the people of the Republic will come out in great numbers to vote, and I am confident that their voice will be strongly pro-European. But it is also an opportunity for people in the north to consider what is at stake at this stage in European development and how we can play a better part.

“Our great tragedy in the north is that we are now represented in Brussels by three MEPs who fundamentally oppose the whole European project. At best they regard Europe as a cow to be milked for pet domestic projects, at worst it is another arena for their petty tribal contests, a place to trumpet their narrow view of Ireland and the world.

“We are relying on the MEP team from the south to pick up where John Hume left off, to rise to the opportunities and challenges of the new Europe. Bairbre de Brun and her party are working hard to stop the new Europe in its tracks. But we must all recognise that the new Europe has been absolutely vital in achieving the new, agreed Ireland.  

“In the 1880s Charles Stewart Parnell said: ‘No man has the right to say to his country, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further". The benefits of European co-operation are all around us, in every city and town and every rural parish. I am absolutely confident we can go much further if we reject the narrow naysayers, on 12th June in the Republic and in the next European election across this island.

“With six million people on the island, although small in the European context we can punch well above our weight on the European stage. Ireland must use its experience in conflict resolution to help resolve conflicts in the Balkans and elsewhere in Eastern Europe.”

ENDS