Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Labour)
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I support the sentiment of this engagement in terms of what it sets out to achieve. It is alarming, however, to see the Greek right wing party Golden Dawn policing the streets of Athens, Greek women prostituting themselves in the cities of Italy to feed their children and German companies preventing the sale of cancer drugs to dying EU citizens in Greece. It is difficult to speak about social cohesion in Europe when many of our citizens are becoming vulnerable and deprivation is on the increase on the periphery.

We have a great responsibility as democratic elected parliamentarians to prevent the rise of the type of cynicism referred to, vis-à-visthe role of institutions and states over the course of the past months and years. The alarming role of individual states in superseding the authority or the emergence of the authority of the institutions has reflected poorly on the authority of the institutions to respond to the paradigm shift of the economic crisis. Europe has failed to respond in the interest of its citizens vis-à-visthe crisis and the market has reacted more quickly than democracy has been capable of doing to address the concerns of the people of Europe.

Unemployment in Ireland is at almost 15%. Youth unemployment across Europe is accelerating at an alarming pace. Spain has horrific levels of youth unemployment. This plays into the hands of the people who police the suburbs of Athens tonight, who will attack public meetings of the left, of trade unionists and of immigrants and threaten employers who employ non-Greek workers. I would be interested to hear Mr. Casini's response with regard to the alarming disenfranchisement of people, particularly on the periphery of Europe. What steps can we as a committee take, in co-operation with the Parliament, in respect of bridging that gap of cynicism that is emerging where, invariably, young people will fall into one extreme of the political spectrum to protest against the failure of the institutions to deal with the social reality that emerges on the ground?