Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank His Excellency, the ambassador, for being with the committee today. I apologise for having to absent myself as I was obliged to leave for a vote in the Seanad and, unfortunately, we do not adjourn for votes in the Seanad. I also apologise if I am repeating questions that my colleagues have asked.

I am not going to go over the ground that has been covered on Greece, but does the ambassador think the steps the EU has made toward a more robust banking union will reduce the risk of contagion in the event of an unfortunate Greek exit from the eurozone?

In the course of his statement the ambassador said: "Measures against unemployment and the convergence of social policies rank high on our agenda." That is a very welcome statement. From my experience there has been a certain amount of concern that the Europe 2020 strategy has fallen off the agenda and, in particular, the measures to deal with poverty seem to have been dropped from the lexicon. Given that more people are experiencing poverty than at the beginning of the strategy, I welcome the ambassador's commitment to the convergence of social policies. I assumes His Excellency approves of the additional measures being taken to deal with poverty, which I think impacts on all of Europe, including Greece.

The ambassador mentioned the importance of the establishment of the capital markets union. We are in favour of and made observations on this policy. An issue that concerns Ireland is the definition of what constitutes an SME. An SME in Ireland is quite a small company in comparison with what an SME would be in some of the larger European countries. We are concerned that difference across the Union would be recognised in that area.

My final issue relates to Brexit. As I am sure the ambassador knows, the idea of Britain exiting the Union is of enormous concern to this country for a number of reasons, both in terms of history, our shared border and our status as English-speaking islands on the periphery of Europe. There are many other reasons, not least our extensive trading relationships, as to why we would regard the British exit as a matter of significant importance to us and a debate in which it is very important that Ireland engages. What role does His Excellency see the Luxembourg Presidency playing in terms of the negotiations around the UK-EU relationships? In that context I wish to address two themes in this address, the first of which is revitalising the EU Single Market, which has been identified as a priority for the negotiations around Brexit.

Mr. Engelberg mentioned more efficiencies and more cohesive regulation and spoke about European added value. To what extent does he see this assuaging British concerns that Europe is overly bureaucratic? Does his concept of European added value involve more or less bureaucracy? He mentioned more social cohesion, which I would welcome, and the importance of committing to moving on the European integration project, which seems to imply moving towards the ever closer union, as expressed in the treaty. This is an issue which Britain has flagged as a concern and it wishes to have treaty change with regard to this choice of words. On the one hand Mr. Engleberg seems to be assuaging British concerns but on the other, Luxembourg's priorities for the Presidency seem, to some extent, to fly in the face of some of Britain's concerns, particularly with regard to social cohesion and bureaucracy.