On Friday, the people of Ireland will vote a second time on the Lisbon Treaty. Some commentators have said that this is somehow undemocratic. I disagree.

To understand whether the Lisbon Treaty is democratic, there is an important distinction to be borne in mind. On the one hand is the ratification process and on the other is how the EU will function under the amended Treaty.

I should say that I do not believe that the ratification process is in any way undemocratic. There is nothing inherently wrong with voting on the same issue more than once if, in the intervening period, the context has changed.

In relatively recent times, we have repeatedly voted on abortion and divorce.

The second Lisbon Treaty referendum is surrounded by different economic circumstances and, more importantly, the Irish Government has obtained legally effective guarantees about the meaning of the Treaty. I suspect that the reason the opponents of the Treaty make this argument is not out of a noble respect for democracy, but rather a base fear that the people of Ireland will not agree with them this time.

Another argument is that the votes we cast on Friday must be cast on behalf of the citizens of the other member states and, because they have not had a chance to vote in a referendum on the issue, we must vote No. The evidence put forward for this claim is the rejection of a previous version in France and the Netherlands, conveniently ignoring the positive votes in Spain and Luxembourg.

The other member states have their own systems for ratifying treaties, in which we are not entitled to interfere. For example, France has had a presi-dential election in which Nicolas Sarkozy explicitly stated he would ratify the Lisbon Treaty if elected.

The Lisbon Treaty is intended to bring the EU closer to its citizens. The first and most obvious way in which it does so is the increased role of the European Parliament in drafting legislation. In June, we elected a number of Irish MEPs to take their place in the Parliament. These directly elected represent-atives, with their colleagues from all over Europe, will have a right to veto proposals in new areas.

Also, the Treaty forces the European Council to have its meetings in public. The faceless elite will be faceless no more and, more importantly, there will be an end to back-room deals.

Scruntiny

Lastly, a point which has fallen by the wayside in this debate is that the Lisbon Treaty provides for increased scrutiny by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) of the other EU institutions.

Judicial review is a vital aspect of the functioning of a democracy -- it protects citizens from unfair treatment by those in power.

At present, however, whatever the EU does in relation to its Common Foreign and Security Policy and Justice and Home Affairs is completely free of scrutiny.

In short, the Lisbon Treaty will make the EU more democratic.

If you are in favour of democracy, you should be in favour of the Treaty.

Bill Shipsey SC is the chairman of Lawyers for Europe, part of the Ireland for Europe group. He is a former chairman of Amnesty International Ireland, the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Free Legal Advice Centres