Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo everything that has been said in welcoming the Commissioner. As he quite correctly noted, Ireland and Estonia share common interests and common priorities within the wider European Union context. I have two questions, the first of which pertains to a matter I raised at this joint committee some weeks ago and about which I wonder whether the Commissioner is aware. There are proposals from the United Kingdom's Government to introduce a levy of £100 on access by commercial traffic into the United Kingdom. I am unsure whether the Commissioner is familiar with this proposal and I have no further details, other than that when the secretariat checked on foot of my request, the response was that it was no stronger than a proposal. Obviously, however, it is being discussed. The Commissioner can understand how difficult this would be for Ireland, as has already been indicated, as an island nation with a political divide. If the Commissioner is not aware of it, perhaps he or his cabinet might inform themselves because this measure will obviously be of great importance.

My initial reaction was that it was anti-competitive and went against the Treaty of Rome, but I am not sure what the details are. I wanted to take this opportunity, as it is within the Commissioner's remit, to inform him if he was not already aware of it.

My second and final question concerns the EU budget, which the commissioner has emphasised. He is right in that we are perhaps more aware of the nuances of our nearest neighbours because we are so close to them and receive all their news media. There is no question but that Mr. David Cameron will veto any proposal that relates to an increase and, at best, he will perhaps accept a freeze. The Commissioner may wish to expand a little more but, like the rest of us, he too is in somewhat of a limbo in that he is waiting for these decisions to be taken at prime ministerial level. It occurred to me, however, that it might be worth exploring at some point.

One of the difficulties we find is in dealing with Britain as a eurosceptic nation, which has become increasingly eurosceptic as a result of this administration. It is quite obvious now that Mr. Cameron is a hostage to his significant backbench eurosceptic body. There seems to be a lack of information coming forward from the European Commission and the European Union in informing the general public in Britain. I am not saying this is easy because one is up against a hostile media. For example, last night on the BBC - which is the television news of record, reporting impartially and objectively - all they reported was the debate surrounding either a freeze or an increase. They talked in percentage terms but no information was given to the general viewer as to what exactly the figures were. As 1% of the EU's GDP it is a relatively small figure. However, it was presented in such a way that the percentages represented something extraordinarily large that would impact adversely on the British taxpayer. That is why I raised the issue. There seems to be an information deficit but I appreciate that the commissioner is up against a hostile media in the UK.