Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If for whatever reason people may be moving on, lack of appreciation of the role of their institution is not one of them because it is very much a changing body.
The Deputy asked about protest votes and legislation. I believe people can protest strongly against the direction the European Union is taking and still be effective legislators. They just have a very different outlook from mine, which is their right and what makes politics work. All I hope is that the people, who get elected to the European Parliament on the back of opposing the EU or how the Parliament uses its powers, will still participate fully and use all the powers the European Parliament has at its disposal. It matters greatly to Ireland and our national interest in different policy areas, and it matters to the European project. Given the amount of debate that is going on and how hard people are working to get elected to the European Parliament, I am sure they will participate with great vigour if and when they get elected to that Parliament.
Senator Hayden asked about energy independence. When considering that, we should acknowledge the amount of progress that has already taken place in trying to increase Europe's energy security. For example, mechanisms are now in place to allow reverse-flow exchange of energy between countries, which means that gas or whatever the energy is can go in both directions through infrastructure. A significant amount of work has taken place to ensure that happens. We should consider the amount of additional physical interconnection that is now in place between different member states versus where we were when other crises took places in Ukraine. Considerable progress has taken place, but much remains to be done.
The Senator asked if I was confident that would happen. I am certainly more confident that it will happen because it is now clearer than it ever was previously what the larger forces are that could affect Europe's ability not only to access energy but to access energy at a price it can afford. Both of those are very important. Based on the discussions in which I have participated, there is crystal clear awareness of how important that is now, while acknowledging progress that has already been made.
The Senator asked if the size of the Parliament is an impediment to it using its powers effectively and increasing its political legitimacy. Based on my dealings with it, I would say that it is not an impediment because of the amount of work that is done in the committee structure within the Parliament. I am struck by what is happening in this term of the Dáil and Seanad, perhaps for other reasons. The people who are performing roles within the committee structure of the European Parliament have acquired significant influence and a large role in terms of how the European Parliament does its work. Either consciously or otherwise, they have dealt with the point the Senator raised, which is how a body with 751 Members can possibly operate efficiently. That has been dealt with through an extremely impressive committee system that operates in a very focused and professional way, much of it depending on the role of individual rapporteurs.
The Senator spoke about caution regarding future European engagement and enlargement. She acknowledged that we would have differing views in that regard. Thank God for that; how else would any of this work? Why do I have a different role in relation to the role that the European Union can play outside its current borders by the offer of either European Union membership or closer association with the European Union at a point in the future? The most important example of that at the moment is with what is happening in Serbia and its relationship with Kosovo. The Belgrade-Pristina agreement is an extraordinary agreement between two countries that have had great mutual difficulty in the past and still do now.

So much of that agreement was secured, if not all of it was secured, through the role the European Union can play in influencing and projecting soft power outside of its own boundaries. We have seen already in the 1990s the difficulties and the significant consequences that can be caused for all of Europe by difficulties and volatility in central and eastern Europe.
If one were to ask me why should the European Union continue to engage with countries outside of its borders and conscious of some of the points Senator Hayden made, the best example I can offer is the extraordinary progress that has been made in that part of Europe to which reference was made due to the role of the European Union. We are very pleased to welcome our friends from Croatia who recently joined the European Union. I have heard many politicians from that part of Europe speak recently about the difficulties they have had and they say that the most important structural charge in that part of Europe versus the position they were in ten to 20 years ago is that the region is now a positive contributor to stability as opposed to what it would have been in the past. That is I believe due to the role the European Union has played. I very much look forward to debating this and continuing to do so in the future. This is what the people we represent care about. It is very important that people can see the different sides to the argument, that both sides can hold views that are different in some respects, but are genuinely held, on the role of the European Union.
As to whether we should slow down the integration process in response to that kind of concern, it will not surprise members to hear me say that I do not believe we should, but what we need to emphasise is that we have a very different integration process from what we had a few years ago. As the nature of integration for current members of the European Union deepens and changes - what is happening in Justice and Home Affairs is an excellent example of that - it means that what we ask future member states to accede to and become members of has changed and because of that the integration process has changed.
If we were to compare the integration process that Croatia has just completed, and contrast it with what happened in 2004, not to mention what we in Ireland did more than 40 years ago, I need hardly tell members that is a comparison of night and day. Different dynamics have kicked in to the accession and integration negotiation. The discussion and negotiation that the European Union would have with other countries may have changed but I do not believe they have slowed down or should slow down because of concerns that people would have regarding enlargement as an objective per se. I continue to believe that it is as important as it has ever been.