I Welcome This Opportunity to Address the Seanad on European Issues

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Statement on Europe to the Seanad by the Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern T.D. Thursday, 13 October 2005

I welcome this opportunity to address the Seanad on European issues.

The EU is currently going through a period of uncertainty. The rejection of the European Constitution in the French and Dutch referendums marked a setback for the process of European Integration. This setback was compounded by the failure of the June European Council to agree on the future Financial Perspectives of the Union.

On the economic front too, Europe is not doing well. The core European economies are battling high unemployment, rising public sector deficits and social systems faced with funding the needs of ageing populations. In addition, across the European Union there are difficult national debates about how best to integrate immigrants into society and about the geographical limits of Europe.

Externally the Union faces an ever increasing competitive challenge from the rising, low cost and highly productive economies of Asia, particularly China and India, and from the huge agricultural producers of Brazil, Argentina, Australia and the US.

Against this background, it is easy to become pessimistic. Many commentators suggest that the EU’s original vision has become obsolete and needs to be radically updated.

I reject this pessimism and this bleak view of Europe’s prospects. Europe is a stunning success on a political level and is hugely underestimated on an economic level. Fashionable Europessimism is dangerous. It only serves the interests of those who want to weaken the European Union. Such weakening carries the risk of returning Europe to an earlier age of competing loosely linked nation States. That Europe, of course, was one where the mightiest pursued exclusively national agendas at the expense of the small and the weak in the short term, and of the entire continent in the longer term.

Last year the European Union took in ten new Member States. They are being fully integrated into the EU family. They have accepted the values that underpin the Union. Their relatively new democracies are anchored in the Union. They will prosper economically and will benefit from European solidarity through the Structural and Cohesion Funds.

We have not fully appreciated what a monumental achievement this represents. The fall of the Iron Curtain ushered in massive change on the continent, change that could have resulted in political instability and conflict. One only needs to look at recent developments in the former Yugoslavia to see how easily the hobgoblins of territorial conflict and ethnic hatred can raise their heads in the absence of strong institutions and policies which support cooperation, solidarity and partnership.

Instead of economic disruption, political instability and social upheaval, the fall of the Iron Curtain has brought the spread of peace, democracy and human rights across the continent. The European Union has been the instrument of this transformation, just as it underpinned the new democracies in Spain, Portugal and Greece in earlier enlargements.

The people of the Western Balkans know and recognise the immense value of the Union. They are now looking to us to help secure their future peace and development after the ravages of the Balkan wars. Turkey is looking to the EU as its home in a globalising world.

Yes, on the economic front, Europe faces daunting challenges. Yes, there is much work to be done in facing up to the challenges of globalisation. But, on the other hand, Germany is the world’s largest exporter with a corporate sector that is reaping the benefits of restructuring. The dynamic Nordic economies and Spain are growing strongly. France is home to one of the most productive workforces in the world and to many of the EU’s most successful global companies. The economies of our Central and East European partners are set to grow strongly. And the Eurozone has generally strong external economic balances, enjoying a trade surplus with the rest of the world.

On the recently published UN Human Development Index, twelve EU Member States feature in the top twenty in the world, with Ireland at number eight. These countries have the best quality of life in the world. Let us not therefore delude ourselves into thinking that the EU is in terminal economic decline.

The rejection of the European Constitution in the national referendums in France and The Netherlands was a major shock. Their Governments, without our experience of holding national referendums on EU issues, were taken aback to find that many voters did not see the EU as relevant to the concerns they faced in their daily lives.

The fact that the Union has lost the confidence of many people across the Union is not a complete surprise to me. The result in Ireland in our first Nice referendum was an early manifestation of a sense of disconnect with the European project which is now general throughout the Union and was never specific to Ireland.

In June, the European Council initiated a process of reflection and debate on Europe in all of the Member States. Today, in Brussels, the European Commission will launch its own contribution to shaping the debate on Europe. The Government wants our national debate on Europe to be open, inclusive and informative. The Government and the Oireachtas will play a lead role in this debate. The National Forum for Europe will also play a key role. Today we are publishing the Government’s White Paper on the European Constitution. This White Paper is an important contribution to our national debate on Europe. It explains in language that is clear and accessible what the European Constitution is all about and why it is important for Ireland and for Europe.

The White Paper also stands, on its own merits, as an important statement of the Government’s policy on the European Union; on how the enlarged Union can best work effectively in the interest of all; and most importantly, on the common values that all of the Member States of the Union share.

In publishing the White Paper we are also affirming the Government’s view that the European Constitution is a good document and that we would like to see it implemented.

Of course, I accept the outcomes of the votes in France and The Netherlands. Nonetheless, I continue firmly to believe that if we are to equip a Union of twenty-five or more Member States to deal with the challenges facing it, we will inevitably return to the European Constitution. While the ratification process may be suspended and the future uncertain, I cannot see the European Constitution going away indefinitely.

The national debates on Europe should be used for a frank debate about dealing with the challenges now facing the Union. I do not believe that Europe needs a root and branch reform. I do, however, agree, that the EU needs to better use its Institutions, its common policies, its Internal Market and its development aid and external trade to face up to the challenge of globalisation.

Globalisation is a fact of life and it has, on the whole, been a positive force for global development. We see the daily advances China is making. We are witnessing the progressive transformation of India into a major trading nation. These two countries, which between them constitute two fifths of the world’s population, are using trade and investment as the way out of poverty. They, along with many developing countries, often quote Ireland as one of their models for economic development.

Globalisation is having a dramatic effect on the plight of the poorest people. In China for example, the number of people living on less than $1 a day fell from 490 million in 1981 to 88 million in 2002.

At the end of this month I will attend an Informal meeting of the EU’s Heads of State and Government in Britain. This meeting will allow all the EU’s leaders to discuss the management of reform in Europe and how Europe can reconcile its strong commitment to social solidarity with the competitive pressures and challenges of globalisation.

This is a timely meeting. It will help restore momentum and confidence to Europe. It is important that the meeting is not sidetracked into a fruitless debate about the relative merits of different social systems. Instead it will, I hope, focus on how we can best cooperate through the EU in facing up to globalisation.

In the EU, we need a clear and well thought out strategy for dealing with globalisation. This strategy must include:

social partnership,
a strong focus on research and development,
harnessing the benefits of our Internal Market,
more effective use of our common policies,
a more coherent approach to our political and economic relations with China and other new trading nations and
a strong commitment to a successful and balanced outcome to the WTO Doha Round trade negotiations.

In the coming months, as the Member States debate and reflect on Europe, the Union must provide strong and convincing evidence that when we act together in the EU we make a real difference to people’s lives.

I fully support the British Presidency’s objective of securing agreement on the EU’s future Financial Perspectives at the European Council in December. Agreement on this important issue would be a real boost for the EU.

For Ireland’s part, we will continue to insist that the agreement reached by the European Council in October 2002 on the future funding of the Common Agricultural Policy is fully respected. We will also work to ensure that the Union has the resources it needs to meet the demands we place on it. And we will strongly support the provision of generous Structural and Cohesion funding to the new Member States.

In relation to the Common Agricultural Policy, I have, over the past weeks, set out a clear and cogent argument in defence of the CAP. Simplistic and negative statements about the CAP, many of which are driven by self-interest, are continually being made. These statements are becoming lodged in the public consciousness. In my statements, I have stressed the following key points:

The CAP is the only fully funded common EU policy.

The CAP plays a vital role in securing Europe’s food supplies;

Average farm size in the EU is much smaller than in our main international competitors.

The CAP has given Europe relative price stability when viewed against the huge price oscillations in international commodity markets;

Over the past 15 years, the CAP has been subjected to three major broad-based reforms – in 1992, 1999 and 2003.

The 2003 reform was based on a unanimous agreement reached by the European Council on future CAP funding up to 2013.

The 2003 CAP reform was also the most radical since the CAP was established because it decoupled subsidies from production. Farmers will now produce in response to market signals alone; they will not produce simply to receive a subsidy.

Expenditure on the CAP is falling, and falling significantly. The ceiling agreed in October, 2002 for the EU25 for 2013 is less in real terms than the ceiling agreed for the EU15 for 2006

In addition, charges that the CAP is damaging developing countries’ ability to trade are not correct. The EU is by far the largest importer of agricultural products from developing countries. The EU absorbs about 85% of Africa’s agricultural exports and 45% of Latin America’s

I welcome the opening of the enlargement negotiations with Turkey and with Croatia on 3 October. I also want to see Bulgaria and Romania take up their places as full Member States.

Last December the European Council agreed that enlargement negotiations should be opened with Turkey and Croatia in 2005. It was important that the Union lived up to the commitments it had given, particularly when the two candidate States involved had made very strong national efforts to comply with the conditions that had been set down by the EU.

Across Europe there is clearly widespread public unease and concern about the further enlargement of the Union, particularly in relation to the possible accession of Turkey - a country of 70 million whose economic development is considerably behind even the poorest EU Member States. In the coming years, as the accession negotiations progress, much work will need to be done to convince people that Turkey can meet the requirements for EU membership, that the Union has the capacity to absorb Turkey and that full membership for Turkey is very much in the long-term interests of both the EU and Turkey.

I do not doubt that the accession negotiations with Turkey will be tough and difficult for both sides. While the negotiations are not preordained to succeed, and accession should only be on the basis of full compliance with the requirements of membership, we must make every effort to ensure that they do succeed.

The enlargement of the Union is essentially about enlarging the community of countries that subscribe to the Union’s values. These values are explicitly set out in the European Constitution namely: respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Obviously a demonstrated commitment to these values will be central to the future success of any accession negotiations.

Another issue on the EU’s agenda which needs to be pushed forward in the coming months is the fight against terrorism, organised crime and drugs. It is areas such as these that the added value of collective action by the Member States is self-evident.

And finally, the EU needs to implement a legislative programme that is relevant and aimed at strengthening the Union to face up to the challenges of globalisation. I welcome the EU Commission’s recent decision to review and withdraw more than a third of the proposed laws pending at the European Parliament and Council. This does not mean that the Union is abandoning regulation. It means that Europe is now focussing on better regulation which is an approach we have been advocating for the past two years.

In the coming months the Government and the National Forum for Europe will promote the national debate on Europe. As part of this process we will schedule a full debate on Europe in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

I look forward to receiving the contribution of the Seanad to this national debate.

Thank you.