Professor Jonathan Faull:

I thank all the members. I confirm that this is the first time I have spoken to a parliamentary committee. Even though this is at a, frankly, delicate stage and there are lots of things, as the members will see in a moment, on which I simply cannot answer, I thought it was right to come here first because we acknowledge that Ireland has a very specific and important stake in the outcome of these discussions. To make a few general remarks first, I am not here as a Brit. I happen to be a Brit, but I am also a European Commission official. Certainly, I do not represent the British Government. When I say "we" and "our" occasionally, it is because it is an easy way to explain things. However, I am a European civil servant. My job is to try to understand what Mr. David Cameron wants and to help craft the appropriate responses. That means a great deal of legal analytical work and a great deal of discussion with the other member states on what they, who are the ones who will ultimately have to decide, can agree with the UK. What all this means for the referendum campaign is a second and completely separate issue. Who knows to what extent whatever happens in these negotiations will have an impact on the way the men and women of Britain vote? No one can tell. To what extent some of the issues the committee members raised, including the City of London, sterling, exports and agreements with the United States of America, will play a role is not something anyone knows at the moment. I would be surprised if they were not mentioned and debated in the campaign which is barely beginning now, but they are not matters on which we are negotiating with the British Government. They are not matters that Mr. Cameron wants to see Brussels reacting to immediately, as he set out in his letter, other than under the general notion of competitiveness where, no doubt, he wants to see more effective trade agreements.

What is the role of the Irish Government in the negotiations now? The members should ask the Irish Government. Like all other member states, it is involved in the discussions in Brussels which have taken place and which will continue to take place in the run-up to the European Council meeting on 17 and 18 December 2015. It will be involved in such subsequent meetings as may be necessary. I talk to Irish officials. I did so just this morning before coming here. There is a regular round of contacts in Brussels and I am sure Irish Ministers and diplomats all over Europe are talking to their counterparts in other countries and leaving them in no doubt of the importance Ireland attaches to this issue. Everybody understands that instinctively, but it also needs to be brought home to them precisely what it means for the Border, the Border regions on both sides and, more generally, for Anglo-Irish relations.

Do we have a plan B or contingency plan? No. There is no speculation or consideration about the outcome of a referendum which has not even been called yet and on which the campaign has barely begun. We hope the outcome will be that the United Kingdom remains in the EU and therefore the EU remains united. To those committee members who mentioned the other huge crisis facing us, I come from a city which is still largely in lock-down because of a very serious terrorist threat. We all know the major challenges facing Europe politically, economically and in security terms and we certainly believe the unity of Europe is very important at this moment.

Somebody said that all member states should be in the eurozone. I think it was Deputy Durkan. The treaty says very clearly that the euro is a currency of the European Union but as a matter of fact we know that some member states do not have it as their currency. We also know that they are not obliged to have the euro as their currency. The United Kingdom and Denmark have legal opt-outs of slightly different kinds, but they both have them. It is fair to say that the relationship between eurozone and non-eurozone countries is a genuine issue and it will not disappear overnight through everybody joining the euro. That is simply not the world we live in. In the Single Market and on this island we have to live with that reality and make sensible arrangements for doing so.

The challenge for national parliaments in working together is a considerable one. National parliaments have their domestic role and there are several ways they can feed into European business by controlling their own executives but also by taking positions in co-operation with other national parliaments. How that is organised is largely a matter for the committee members and their colleagues but it is an area of considerable importance. We are talking not so much about whether a particular policy choice is a good one; subsidiarity is much more fundamental. Whether a particular issue is best dealt with at national or at European level is an issue that is often very important and people have different views. I agree that national parliaments are very well placed to have strong views on the subject and should share those views with colleagues in other places and bring them to bear on the Brussels process. That is the general idea. How it is organised-----