Will we keep our Commissioner?

As things stand, at least one country will lose their Commissioner in November of this year.

This is because the Nice Treaty currently sets out how the EU works, and it contains a clause which says that the Commission should be reduced in numbers once EU has 27 members. So, when the new Commission starts in November this year, this rule will come into force.

However, the Lisbon Treaty states that this rule can be changed if the European Council decides unanimously to do so. Since the first Lisbon vote, the heads of the EU countries have gone one step further and agreed that, if the Lisbon Treaty gets voted in, every country will keep a Commissioner.

So, in this second referendum, we are voting on a Lisbon Treaty that guarantees us a Commissioner. If the Treaty is rejected, we risk losing ours.

For more on what our Commissioner does and the guarantee that allows us to keep him in Brussels, see the fact sheet “We’ll have no Commissioner…”

http://www.europeanmovement.ie/index.php?id=8929