Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. The citizens of the EU are pretty exhausted at this stage and stretched. We have had the financial crash, Brexit, the pandemic, the Ukraine war and the cost-of-living crisis. Although treaty change needs to be addressed for many reasons, I am not sure there is much appetite for it among citizens at the moment. They are certainly not engaged with it.

As the witness said, enlargement will be a big challenge. Ireland, in principle, favours enlargement but as the witness pointed out, it will have implications for decision-making and the budget. Following the Conference on the future of Europe, the Minister of State was at the committee and was of the view that the existing treaties need to be utilised to the maximum to deliver on most of the recommendations. Are the existing treaties not fit for purpose concerning enlargement? Can we get by using the existing treaties?

There are various institutions in the European Union. Concerning the European Council, we are one of 27. In the Commission, as far as I know, we are one of 27, and there is the European Parliament. For those reasons, I am not always in favour of giving more powers to the European Parliament. I think Ireland might lose out in that process. Perhaps that is not a democratic thing to say. Concerning these proposals and the position of having one Commissioner per member state, how is it proposed to change that in the European Parliament paper? It was a big issue in Ireland during our various referendums - the late Professor Basil Chubb told me it was referendums, not referenda. I wish to ask about the ratification processes across the 27 member states for treaty change. For example, Ireland has not ratified the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA. I think this committee, unfortunately, has to take some credit or whatever for that because we could not reach agreement. Therefore, it has not gone to the Dáil and Ireland has not ratified it. It shows how difficult it is to get ratification. I can only imagine what it would be like across the 27. That is not necessarily a question; it is a comment.

I saw in the media in the past day or two about getting military aid to Ukraine and that there is disagreement from Hungary and Slovakia. Was there some mechanism proposed that each member state would just do it, not necessarily under an EU umbrella? Is that the model that may be used more and more? I am not sure if the witnesses are in a position to comment on that. The appointment of the presidents of the Commission, the Council and the Parliament and the EU foreign policy chief is very unseemly and the wheeling and dealing will happen again next year. It is raw politics in action. Are there proposals to change that process? It is on our doorstep. It is about to happen. Are there any suggestions on how those appointments will be pursued in the future in the context of the European Parliament paper?