Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:

“recognises the achievements of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union contributing to stability, jobs and growth;

supports the Government's ongoing work to promote measures which will allow the European Union to respond effectively to the crisis currently facing the Union, particularly those steps which will help break the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns;

underlines the importance of measures being prioritised by the Government to foster jobs and competitiveness; and

emphasises the importance of deepening public engagement with the EU and the need to ensure that democratic legitimacy and accountability remain fundamental pillars of the Union.”

I welcome the opportunity to debate European affairs and I thank Deputy Pringle and his colleagues for tabling this motion.

There can be little doubt that the major challenge faced by this country in restoring our economy must be addressed in the context of our relationship with the European Union. This Government's commitment to restore our country's finances and to rebuild Ireland's reputation on the international stage is now well installed and delivering results. As we undertook this challenge, it was clear that Ireland's seventh Presidency of the Council of the European Union would play an important role. That is the reason the Government has focused the Irish Presidency policy programme on the most pressing issues facing Ireland and the EU today. As Deputy Healy-Rae said, Ireland is a proud nation and that is why, as Robert Emmet said, we take our place among the nations of the earth and we use the opportunity that is afforded to us now to play a leadership role in Europe and to dedicate our Presidency to the objectives of stability, jobs and growth.

When we look back over the past five months, we know that this was the right course. It was right for Ireland and for the European Union. Rarely have our national interests been so in tune with the overarching objectives of the Union. Ireland's recovery and Europe's recovery are inextricably linked. The House can be assured that the Government will continue to do all that it can during the remaining 40 days of the Presidency to deliver on the commitments set out in the programme that we laid before the Oireachtas last January.

Unemployment, especially the unacceptably high rates of youth unemployment, is the one of gravest challenges facing Europe today. Without decisive action the problem will have devastating social consequences for communities and states across our continent, now and for generations to come. This is why, as Presidency, we have worked, and will continue to all that we can, to tackle the crisis. In February, we secured agreement on the youth guarantee, ensuring that all under-25s without work will receive an offer of meaningful work, training or education. Implementation will be supported by the decision of the European Council to allocate €6 billion a new youth employment initiative.

The Presidency is also focussing on broadening access to education and will work to secure agreement with the European Parliament on proposals such as the Erasmus for All programme and the professional qualifications directive.

We have also sought to stimulate smart and sustainable growth in key areas of the economy to create the jobs of the future. To underpin growth in these areas, we are working to reach agreement on programmes such as Horizon 2020, which will support research and innovation in Europe.

The Single Market is the one of the greatest achievements of the Union. I refer to an integrated marketplace of 500 million consumers making it as easy as possible for firms to expand their businesses beyond national boundaries. Over the past two decades, access to the Single Market has provided SMEs with new opportunities but has also delivered strong benefits to consumers through increased competition. The Single Market remains incomplete, however. That is why we set about unlocking its full potential, particularly for SMEs. Growing businesses is the key driver of job creation. Proposals that the Presidency has delivered on, such as the accounting directive, will simplify financial reporting requirements for millions of European micro and small enterprises. The Unified Patent Court will bring protection of intellectual property rights within their reach. Finalising the public procurement package will streamline SME access to markets accounting for nearly one fifth of EU GDP.

The Presidency is also laying important foundations for the digital single market, creating coherent market rules that will support new growth areas. Most job creation comes from fast-growing young firms and, as holders of the Presidency, we will do all we can to support and foster the growth in these areas. We remain hopeful that we will reach agreement at the Council on the main elements of the data protection package before the end of June, and are making solid progress on the collective rights management and e-identification files.

The Presidency has also secured agreement on other proposals, such as the Union customs code, to reduce red tape for business and the re-use of public sector information that can also generate growth that, in turn, can support job creation in Europe. In addition to working to release the full potential of its Internal Market, the Irish Presidency also wants to open up new markets for exporters across the Union, providing Europe with new sources of growth and employment. The Presidency is working to advance a range of trade agreements with partners in Asia. Making progress on trade negotiations with Canada remains an important priority also. We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of securing a mandate for the start of negotiations on a trade and investment partnership with the United States. Such an agreement would contribute greatly to boosting trade, growth and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

One of the major challenges facing the Presidency in the weeks that remain is finalising negotiations with the European Parliament on the EU budgetary framework for the next seven years, the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, for the period 2014 to 2020. This is important precisely because the MFF provides vital support for growth and employment at national, regional and local levels in every member state. In addition to supporting a continuing strong and well-funded CAP, which supports our growing and job-rich agrifood industry, some €125 billion has been allocated in the area of competitiveness for growth and jobs, with Erasmus and research and development being singled out for real growth. Some €325 billion has been allocated for cohesion funding, which is a major tool for job creation within the Union. Within this, a special allocation of €100 million for the BMW region was agreed, in addition to the regular cohesion policy allocations to Ireland and its two regions.

While agreement on the MFF is key for future growth, concerted action across the euro area and the wider EU remains vital in order to bring us beyond crisis and onto lasting recovery. A stronger, more robust, economic and monetary union is emerging, and will help to underpin the confidence that is so important to turning things around. The Union that entered the crisis was ill-equipped to deal with the unprecedented challenges it faced. However, in the best traditions of the Union, we have worked hard together to build stronger, more robust foundations. We have put rescue mechanisms in place, first the temporary EFSF and EFSM, from which Ireland received the European elements of its loans, and now the permanent ESM.

We have strengthened the rules underpinning the euro, through the legislative six-pack and the two-pack, with the latter finalised during our term as holders of the Presidency. We are now much better equipped to see trouble coming and to take the steps necessary to head it off. We have tighter rules and are better positioned to ensure that they are adhered to. Through the European semester, we have improved our economic co-ordination, ensuring that member states undertake the structural reforms needed to put their economies on a sustainable track for the future. If the crisis has revealed anything, it is how interdependent and interlinked our economic fates are. We have to be able to hold each other to account.

Of course, the crisis did not emerge solely because of unsustainable economic policies in member states. It was also the result of the type of risk-heavy calamitous banking practices with which we are all too familiar in this country, and the toxic relationship between sovereign and banking debt. Last June, the European Council made a firm commitment to break this vicious circle and mapped out a plan of action designed to being about a banking union. This was a critical decision which Ireland believes we must follow through upon and implement. We see it as a test of credibility for the European Union. Delivering on a fully fledged banking union, and on the ambitious timeline set by the European Council in December, has been a high priority for us as holders of the Presidency. One of the most significant steps was achieved by the Irish Presidency earlier this spring when we secured agreement on the single supervisory mechanism for European banks, a key move towards banking union.

By providing for oversight of the euro area's credit institutions, we have acted to restore confidence in the European banking system and to build stability across Europe. We have also strengthened democratic accountability by giving the European Parliament a greater role in the appointment of the supervisory board. Another landmark in the road to banking union is the agreement facilitated by our Presidency on the capital requirements directive, which limits the extent of bankers' bonuses and seeks to protect taxpayers by ensuring that European banks hold sufficient capital to withstand future shocks.

We are continuing to work for agreement on banking resolution and on deposit guarantees during our term, in keeping with the mandate from the December European Council. This is not an easy task. It is politically and technically complex and challenging. The timeframe is challenging but we have committed to this task. We must deliver on that commitment in order to bolster the confidence and trust of our citizens and the markets. Ireland will continue to press for early progress in putting in place the remaining measures to complete the task of achieving a robust banking union for all of the our citizens, who expect nothing less.

While Europe has been challenged by the crisis, it has acted resolutely and in concert to overcome it. We can be proud of our contribution to this vital work. We all recognise that if Europe's response to shared economic challenges had to be through deeper integration, then it was going to be all the more important that the Union be transparent, and accountable, to its citizens. Decisions on national budgets are at the heart of member states' parliamentary democracies, as they should be. Precisely for that reason, it is important that national parliaments play their part in the European semester process.

I welcome the steps that are being taken to improve dialogue between the national parliaments of member states and the European Parliament. This was expressly provided for in the stability treaty and helps to ensure there is adequate oversight of the decisions that are respectively taken at national and at EU level. Another innovation to be welcomed is the recent adoption by this House for the first time of an annual EU scrutiny work programme. One of the reforms introduced under our programme for Government was to mainstream the scrutiny of EU business across sectoral committees. Last year, I believe the European Commission published over 700 proposals. Oireachtas scrutiny of EU business will be better served by Members concentrating on issues of most relevance to Ireland and the 2013 priorities programme provides them with a very good roadmap.

This is a good time for a public debate in Ireland about what it means to be part of the European Union, coming as it does 40 years after Ireland's accession and at a time when we hold the Presidency of the Council and can help shape the EU agenda. It is also a time of unprecedented questioning on the direction and purpose of the Union. I acknowledge that there is continuing concern about the lack of popular engagement in EU affairs, both here and abroad. A challenge for all of us is how to interest citizens in issues that are often technical and may appear remote from them.

I do not believe that it helps the debate to engage in apocalyptic talk about the EU as if it will disappear, collapse or implode. We have heard a lot of that over the past number of years.

It is incumbent on us to work to shape the EU in the way in which we believe it should be functioning. That has been the approach this Government has taken from its very inception. We never accepted, and do not recognise, the kind of description we have heard to the effect that Europe tells us what to do. From the very start of the election of this Government, we set about changing the dynamic in Europe.

The recovery in Europe could not be based on budgetary adjustment alone. There had to be a jobs strategy and a growth strategy. That has now become an accepted part of European policy. When we started out the principle of thinking in Europe was that when banks went wrong in individual EU states, it fell on the taxpayers of those states to shoulder the burden. We have since put in place the European Stability Mechanism. We are now in the process of building a banking union. During the Irish Presidency of the EU we have advanced a lot of the pillars of the proposed banking union. If it had been in place at the start of the banking and financial crisis our situation would have been entirely different.

The kind of caricature which has been presented here, namely, that we take dictation from Europe, and are small and isolated, is not something I recognise. I have returned from chairing the General Affairs Council of the European Union this morning. We discussed a €960 billion budget for the future of Europe, what will have to be done to deal with the problems of tax evasion and tax fraud in Europe, what needs to be done to deal with the energy policies in Europe and what needs to be done to advance more effectively the compact for jobs and growth which was agreed last June. These are the practical measures we are advancing to make Europe relevant to the people we represent and to bring about economic recovery in Europe, which is part and parcel of bringing about economic recovery in this country.

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