Eurosceptic says EU treaty bad for Ireland

(This story first appeared on May 28) By Jonathan Saul

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The European Union's reform treaty is a bad deal for smaller states who will see their influence eroded in the bloc's main decision making body, Danish Eurosceptic campaigner Jens-Peter Bonde said on Wednesday.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen this week described the treaty, which replaces a constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, as a "major victory" for small members such as Ireland that would protect and promote their interests.

Irish voters go to the polls on June 12 to vote on the treaty in the only referendum planned by an EU state, meaning one of the bloc's smallest nations could sink a project designed to end years of wrangling over reform of its institutions.

Bonde, who recently retired after 29 years as a member of the European parliament and was involved in negotiations over the treaty, told Reuters he would have voted "no" if his country had held a referendum.

He said larger countries had already been steadily increasing their weight on the decision-making European Council.

"It (the treaty) is not an adjustment, it is a radical change where the small member states give in and the big member states win power in the Council," he told Reuters in Dublin at the launch of his book on the treaty.

Opponents of the treaty say smaller states will see their share of votes shrink on the Council, which represents member states, as it is weighted according to population size. They also say that countries will lose permanent representation on the European Commission executive.

Bonde, who was the architect behind the Danish "no" vote in 1992 over the Maastricht treaty, said he was not in Ireland to encourage people to reject the bloc's latest accord, but added he was critical of the document.