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

I welcome the opportunity to engage with former and new colleagues in this fashion. We are living in very interesting times. We wish all the MEPs the very best in the challenges they face into the future. I have long held the view that the UK leaving the European Union will be a disaster for the UK and will be of no great help to the European Union. The European Commission, Mr. Barnier and his negotiators, have remained constant on the unified approach of the European Union. That is the secret of success.

There will be other challenges. There will be challenges to the rule of law across Europe, but I have no doubt that the European Parliament will be well able to deal with them as they arise. However, we are living in a changing world. It will be dramatically different from the world of the past 15 or 20 years. In dealing with the challenges we, as Members of the national parliament, and the Members of the European Parliament need to keep in touch with each other to co-ordinate our approaches and recognise a common cause.

It is often said the European Union should be brought closer to the people. I have the opposite view, that the people need to be brought closer to the European Union to ensure we all recognise each other as contributors to the European agenda, as well as major stakeholders in the European picture.

For several months there will be a serious recognition on many sides of the dire consequences if a member of the European Union breaks out with or without a deal. The theory about a better deal being available after a break-out needs to be dealt with as it cannot be that way. If it were to happen, the European Union would be no more. There is a recognition on all sides that Brexit was not a good idea to start with and will not improve anybody’s position, either elsewhere in Europe, the United Kingdom or Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement was agreed to by the UK Government, supported by the United States and the European Union, while the Irish Government was a co-sponsor. Much has been said about how the backstop is undemocratic. The Good Friday Agreement was not undemocratic. It was strongly supported by people on both sides of the political and social divide in Northern Ireland, as well as in the South. In the time ahead Members of the national parliament and the European Parliament need to keep in close contact with each other to ensure we will have an influence on the agenda, as well as to recognise the challenges faced. We must also recognise that the next five years in the formulation of the modern Europe will be vastly different from what we have experienced in the past 40 years.