Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Latvia - I was not too far away. Latvia is applying. There are 11 countries signing up to the financial transactions tax, which means that many of them are not. The EU has decided its budget, which is lower than anticipated. The Euro sceptics in Britain are applauding this as a victory to have reduced spending. We are talking about optimism and solidarity, which go hand in hand. Does Britain's decision to have an in-or-out referendum on the EU build the optimism and solidarity that Europe needs at this time? Do Britain's worrying demands to take more power back from Europe to the national Parliament constitute optimism or solidarity from a British perspective? Also on the issue of solidarity, Bulgaria and Romania are arguing they should be within the Schengen region and particular partners in Europe will not support them. Comedians have been elected in Italy. Some people would suggest that Ireland was the first to elect comedians in the last election. Regardless of whether that is true, it indicates that people are very sceptical of politicians and political structures. Again in the context of optimism and solidarity, Catalonia, which is the economic engine of Spain, is considering breaking away - it does not want to have solidarity with the rest of Spain. We see the economic crisis affecting many countries in Europe - particularly the three countries in bailouts, Portugal Greece and Ireland.

Is Europe ready to expand if we cannot resolve these existing contradictions within the Union? Can we agree to expand to include Albania and - the key issue for Europe - Turkey? We are supposed to be talking about the future of Europe and these are the issues within Europe that we may not be addressing fully.