Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Our two countries have much in common, including our size, our history of struggling towards independence and our peripheral geographical location on the European continent. It was apt that Lithuania joined the European Union under the successful Irish Presidency of the European Union in 2004, when ten new member states from central and eastern Europe joined in the largest expansion of the Union in its history.

The theme of this Presidency, as has already been outlined, is "For a Credible, Growing and Open Europe". This theme is more important now than ever before in the development of the European project. The Joint Committee on European Union Affairs had an opportunity to hear from the Lithuanian ambassador in recent days and he set out what I consider to be a highly credible agenda. It was clear to members of the joint committee that his Government is both committed to that and has thought it through.

Clearly, it has been in contact with the Irish Administration and our officials in Brussels who do and have done an outstanding job through various Presidencies. I am aware from my contacts with other ambassadors and politicians throughout Europe that our Permanent Representation lends a hand to others and I have no doubt that it has already been working, as part of the troika, on ensuring Lithuania is given every assistance in its efforts. We all look forward to a successful outcome to that process.

Since 2008 the European Union has lacked credibility in a number of key areas. This resulted in the crisis of confidence which engulfed our economic, financial and political systems. After much constitutional wrangling in the last decade, with two comprehensive treaty changes in ten years, the European Union found itself unprepared and unable to deal with the consequences of an unprecedented debt crisis. We have not yet recovered from that crisis of confidence, although the fundamental threat to the cohesion and future development of the Union has, it appears, receded for now. We have talked on many occasions in the House about the unsightly weekly press conferences conducted in front of the Élysée Palace or somewhere in Germany, at which two of the largest member states sought to fill the vacuum because the institutional architecture was found wanting when there was a crisis. I am pleased that, at last, there is an opportunity to work towards ensuring it is never allowed to happen again and that smaller states such as Ireland and Lithuania remain a key feature of the decision-making process. That is why the Commission will have to take such a central role. Unfortunately, when the crisis hit, it was found wanting and we were left with the bilateral approach which did a great deal to undermine confidence in the Union as a whole.

It is welcome that Lithuania will focus its efforts on enhancing the European Union's ability to provide adequate responses to the economic, financial, social and energy challenges. These are comprehensive challenges but certainly not insurmountable. If the European Union had provided for an adequate response to the unprecedented banking and financial crisis in 2008, it is probable that this recession which has now lasted almost five years would have been much shorter. Having established a flawed monetary union in the 1990s, without proper economic stabilisers or a properly mandated central bank, the European political elite failed to remedy these flaws quickly enough when the crisis hit. This resulted in an existential crisis in the Union and has caused much hardship to millions of European citizens who suffer the scourge of unemployment, poverty and inequality today.

Yes, progress has been made in recent months, but it is slow and cumbersome. The delay in implementing a fully functioning banking union, with certain member states squabbling over which banks should and should not be covered, is a clear example that some decision makers in the European Union have simply not learned the lessons of the past. In a time of crisis they looked at the national interest rather than sharing and pooling resources, which was at the heart of the development of the Union. All would have benefited if countries had worked collectively. The failure of the EU institutions to embrace the European Council's commitment to separate sovereign debt and banking debt is a further indictment of the current leadership of the Union.

There is, without question, still much to do to restore the European Union's credibility among our international partners and, most importantly, citizens. Last week we saw a further lack of vision on the part of the member states of the European Union when they sought a reduction of €720 million in the EU budget for 2014. Bizarrely, these cuts included a proposed cut of €194 million from the Union's cohesion budget, the very budget which could spur growth in Europe's weakest regions. To ensure it is credible, the Union must work and deliver progress for all its citizens; from east to west; core to peripheral and rich to poor. Cutting the EU budget is counterproductive in achieving this.

The European Union must promote more growth within its borders. Growing our economies by remaining competitive and consolidating financial stability is vital for the future health of the European economy. The completion of the Single Market would also create huge potential for growth in Europe, as it has done in the past. The lifting of barriers to the movement of goods, services, capital and people in the Union has produced millions of extra jobs and increased European wealth levels. That is not disputed by anybody who has a clear insight into the way in which the Union has worked as a result of these changes. It has happened to unprecedented levels. Now is the time to complete what is left to do and remove the final barriers to a full Single Market in Europe. This means integrating our markets further but with proper Europe-wide supervision which will flag difficulties well before a problem becomes a full blown crisis. Further EU integration and the strengthening of the Single Market, including energy, will bring new opportunities to combat unemployment, in particular youth unemployment, and make the European economic and social model more solid.

Much talk has emanated from Europe about youth unemployment. We need far more concrete measures to ensure the appropriate labour activation measures are in place in order that young people who are leaving formal education, be it secondary, tertiary or fourth level, find meaningful labour activation until such time as jobs become available. In our small country we have seen the scourge of unemployment lead to some of our brightest and best people travelling to Australia, New Zealand and further afield in the southern hemisphere to take up employment opportunities there. That brain drain across the European Union will have a long-term impact on our ability to compete, particularly given the significant threats we face from the BRIC - Brazil, Russia, India and China - countries.

Ireland knows better than most the importance of an integrated energy market. The integration of this market offers us the opportunity to secure energy supply, lower energy costs and export surplus energy to our partners in Europe. Ireland imports over 88% of its energy resources, largely consisting of gas, making our energy market vulnerable to external energy shocks caused by both political and economic change in the wider world. In essence, Ireland's energy market is like a bottle cork floating in a very large and turbulent sea. Fully connecting our energy market within Europe will ground it and notably improve our energy security. It should help to protect us from unpredictable external energy shocks. Crucially, too, it will also guarantee a market for our excess wind energy, making the wind energy sector in Ireland a secure and profitable industry. It will also send a strong signal to the investors we seek to assist in the re-emergence of growth in the economy, particularly foreign direct investment. Energy security is a fundamental consideration for many of the industries seeking to position themselves outside their current locations.

It is true that the openness of the European Union to new members, neighbours and trade partners will not only advance the EU economy but will also reaffirm the founding aims of the Union. These aims, to develop a prosperous, peaceful, democratic, free and open Europe, are as important today as at any time in the past. We welcome Lithuania's commitment to these aims and an open European Union. Ireland has always welcomed new partners to the European Union and often acted as a bridge across the Atlantic between Europe and America. The current negotiations between the United States and the European Union to establish a transatlantic trade and investment partnership are to be welcomed and I hope they will be successfully concluded. If the negotiations are successfully completed, this agreement would be the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated and could add approximately 0.5% to the European Union's annual economic output, which would be an impressive achievement, particularly at a time of economic stagnation across the Union. I hope this agreement can be agreed during Lithuania's Presidency.

I hope that in six months we will have seen substantial progress on all of these issues and, in particular, a banking union in Europe, final steps towards a single EU energy market and the successful conclusion of the EU-US trade negotiations. I wish the Lithuanian Presidency every success in taking brave and bold actions to consolidate and advance the Continent's achievements of the past 50 years.

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