All eyes are on Ireland this week and the much-anticipated outcome of the Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.  If the majority of my compatriots do vote ‘yes’ on October 2, it will be largely down to the current crisis, the heightened perception of Ireland’s economic vulnerability and the potential of the EU to keep the country afloat. Few will link the Irish vote to Europe’s role in the wider world and in tackling global poverty and hunger.  If the ‘yes’ campaign do not emphasize this aspect, who could blame them?

But it is an important consideration. The Lisbon Treaty should have positive implications for EU development policy and how Europe will contribute to poverty eradication in the future. First, the Treaty will see the mandate for development co-operation strengthened. The EU will have a legal basis for development co-operation and humanitarian aid, with poverty reduction as its principle aim. Furthermore, the reform process inherent to the Treaty signifies an opportunity to make those EU policies which have an impact on the developing world – the likes of trade, agriculture and energy – coherent with development objectives. The future looks brighter, potentially. But exactly how much brighter depends on the discussions that are taking place – largely behind closed doors– right now.

How the Treaty will be read and applied in practice remains to be seen. Will there still be a Commissioner for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance with equal footing in the College of Commissioners and a strong position vis-a-vis the Council? Will one Commissioner have overall responsibility for both policy formulation and programming, with all developing countries in one single service, as opposed to the current muddled set-up of three (DGs Development, Europe Aid and Relex)? Will the newly proposed EU delegations of Commission officials and national diplomats include development professionals reporting directly to the Development Commissioner with control over the European Development Fund? 

ActionAid is working with Concord and a whole host of civil society organizations to seek a ‘yes’ answer to these questions and the best possible outcome from the reform process, if it comes to pass.  A ‘yes’ to Lisbon in Ireland and the Czech Republic could potentially have a very positive impact on poverty eradication, but it depends on how much the Commission and Council are willing to listen to others in the coming months. We hope that the Commission and Council will give civil society, the European Parliament and national parliaments the opportunity to help shape the new institutional set-up to make it really work for the poor.

Laura Sullivan is an Irish citizen living in Brussels. She works for ActionAid International, an NGO that fights for the rights of the poor and the excluded in over 40 countries worldwide