Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues have been giving out to me for a long time. I thank you, Chairman, for allowing that. I also thank you for facilitating this meeting. It is very important that we have what were our colleagues at some time in the past and perhaps will be our colleagues at some time in the future at local level coming before the committee.

We all support the concept of more power to the regions, more power to national parliaments, more power to the European Parliament and more power to the Council. The problem is that within that there is a division of responsibilities and authority. To what extent will authority and responsibility be equally divided between all those groups? As I have said many times, none of us takes full responsibility for our membership of the European Union. We need in the regions, at local authority level, at national level and at European level, to take full responsibility and ownership of the European project. That means we are equal to all others on the Continent of Europe within the European Union. That means we have equal rights and equal status in every sense of the world. That means that each region and each parliament has an equal entitlement, regardless of the numerical strength of one or the other. Very often that tends to be forgotten.

In addition and as part of that evolution, it is inevitable that there will be a debate, hidden or in the open, on the competition between all of those people in that equation as to who achieves supremacy.

To my mind no one should achieve supremacy. I believe the sum total of the contribution to be made at each level is of critical importance to the European project. If we leave one part of it out then we fail to carry out the role and responsibility that was given to us. If we give too much power to the European Parliament and too much vis-à-visthe other components then someone will suffer. The same applies in respect of the Council of Ministers, which effectively controls the interests of each member state.

There is one question and I will set it out simply. There is a tendency to re-nationalise representation at European level. That is not to our advantage and not to the advantage of any smaller country in any way. It is clearly to the disadvantage of the smaller countries because once power and influence is nationalised, the bigger and more powerful countries attain supremacy. I call on our visitors to ponder the way in which, at this level and through the aegis of the respective bodies in Europe, they promote themselves as a serious influence on the European scene without re-nationalisation or nationalising their input. For example, there was a delegation of representatives from one European country which has a veto on the decisions of the Council. When we asked them what jersey they wore when they issued their instructions to their Minister when it comes to voting at the Council of Ministers, which they do, they did not answer the question. The reason they did not answer the question is because they could not answer the question since the answer was obvious. They vote with the national jersey. At that stage the national jersey of a particular country dominates everything else throughout the 28 member states and that should not be. It means that each country must take ownership at national parliamentary level and at regional and local parliamentary level of the whole European project. Each country must recognise it as part and parcel of its responsibility. It is the responsibility of the delegation and our responsibility. We have one thing in common within the European Union. We have, presumably, a single objective. We must have unity of purpose. If we depart from that we are in difficulty because then the old adage of divide and conquer will prevail. I thank the Chairman and I apologise for having to race across but I will be back.