To the Leadership of the
Communist Party of Ireland

Dear Comrades,

The new European Union Treaty, which was signed by the Heads of State and Government of the EU countries in Lisbon, in December 2007, is nothing more than a new version of the so-called "Constitutional Treaty" that was defeated by the peoples. Fearing a similar outcome, this time the ruling classes have decided to impose such fundamental decisions – which subvert the sovereignty of the EU-member countries – without giving the peoples a chance to express their will. This imposition of decisions which have already been rejected by the peoples clearly reflects the anti-democratic and anti-peoples nature of what they call the "European construction".

Your country’s Constitutional requirement that the Treaty be put the vote, places Ireland in a unique position among the European Union countries. Millions of workers and the peoples of the EU look to the Irish referendum with the hope of finding what they have been denied – a chance to state that they do not want a federalist, neo-liberal and militarist supranational European Union; that they do not want a European Union at the service of big business, exploitation, profits, war and the oppression of other peoples.

It is for all this that the June referendum in your country takes on such an enormous importance. The Portuguese Communist Party salutes all the progressive political, trade-union and popular forces of Ireland which are committed to defeating the EU Treaty of the ruling classes. A victory of the «No» vote in the Irish referendum will represent a major victory for all the workers and the peoples of the European Union countries.

The Central Committee
Portuguese Communist Party