Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to be associated with the remarks about the Minister of State. Like others, I will miss his insights and contributions at the Joint committee on European Affairs, but we will no doubt meet him regularly in his elevated position. I sincerely congratulate him and his family and wish him well and every success in his new role. I have no doubt that he will be as inclusive as he was at the committee in respect of his politics.

Ireland's EU Presidency has officially ended and Lithuania has begun its Presidency. As other speakers said, it is that country's first time to hold the Presidency. I congratulate all those associated with the Irish Presidency, particularly the staff who worked on it in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and at different committees.

I thank them for the energy they displayed and the hard work they did during the very professional and engaging Irish Presidency of the EU. Everyone agrees that, as a result of our financial situation, the costs relating to the Presidency had to be kept to a bare minimum. While I would have some issues with certain expenditures, I welcome the fact that the Presidency came in €9 million under budget.

I wish Lithuania the best of Irish luck with its first EU Presidency. I hope it will be a success. I also hope it will signal both a new beginning and an end to the difficulties facing millions across the EU. This is a vital time for the Union, which is trying to come to terms with the biggest socioeconomic problems to afflict it since its inception. There is no doubt that it is decision time for Europe. Austerity has not worked and, to a large degree, has actually contributed to exacerbating the problem. The financial crisis is having a negative effect on the majority of people across the EU. Politicians in European capitals appear to have no sense of how it is affecting ordinary citizens. Thousands of Greeks hurt by huge unemployment and crippling social cuts have been forced to queue for food handouts, which is a first for them since the Second World War. Unemployment has soared to record highs in both France and Spain, as the impact of government spending cuts and a collapse in consumer confidence is leading to a corresponding collapse in the employment market. A staggering 56.4% of young Spaniards are currently unemployed. In Portugal the figure in this regard is 18%, while in Cyprus it is 15.6%. Tens of thousands of young Irish people are being forced to emigrate, carers hours are being cut, a family home tax has been introduced, child welfare has been cut, hundreds of thousands of families are just about making ends meet and huge numbers of them are being thrown into fuel poverty or skipping meals in order to keep a roof over their heads. Only this week we read newspaper headlines about people suffering with cancer who are going to experience difficulty in accessing medical cards.

It is obvious that austerity policies currently being pursued are deepening the impoverishment of EU citizens and prolonging the financial crisis. It is almost as if we are caught on a runaway train and no one seems to know how to get off. There is no sense of crisis among political leaders. There is no urgency or any understanding of the affect the crisis is having on families and individuals across Europe. At the end of the Irish Presidency, a political agreement was reached on the EU's seven-year budget. This is the first time in 56 years that the EU budget has been cut. I cannot welcome this decision while the Union is facing into its biggest crisis since its inception and is continuing to expand. The reality is that this is an austerity budget which will lock the EU into austerity for the next seven years. It does not contain sufficient spending to boost investment in jobs and growth and it will leave many member states starved of strategic investment in key areas.

Much has been made of the agreement to spend €8 billion during the next two years to support job creation, training and apprenticeships for young people. However, that amount is simply not nearly enough to tackle this major socioeconomic problem. More than half of under-25s in Greece and Spain are out of work, while in Italy the figure stands at 40%. In Ireland the youth unemployment rate is over 30% and would be higher but for the haemorrhaging of youth from towns and cities across the island. This current generation of European youth is probably one of the most educated which Europe has ever produced. However, the EU is confining many of them to unemployment, underemployment or emigration by only allocating €8 billion in the form of the youth guarantee. The International Labour Organisation has estimated that €21 billion would be needed over two years to halt the increase in the EU's youth unemployment rate. Like the EU budget, this youth guarantee is not fit for purpose. It promises much in rhetoric but essentially it will not provide enough funding or investment in order to facilitate the creation of essential jobs and economic growth. This is not new funding that we have been promised, rather it comes from within the new scaled-down EU budget. Eurofound estimates the cost of youth unemployment in Europe at €150 billion a year. The social costs in this regard are also evident each day in constituencies across Ireland and Europe.

The provision of €8 billion for the youth guarantee shows that neither the EU nor Ireland, during its Presidency, have reacted to the scale of the problem. The question that arises is whether the Lithuanian Presidency will bring more of the same or something different. Will it facilitate further austerity or can it help to lead us in a new direction towards a stimulus of growth and jobs? I agree with a the President of a certain EU member state who recently said that the dominant economic thinking in Europe and elsewhere is "the great flaw of our times", that the reaction of EU leader to the crisis is "disparate, sometimes delayed, not equal to the urgency of the task and showing insufficient solidarity" and that "We need a Europe that shows solidarity with the most vulnerable among us - that throws real energy and determination behind efforts to create real sustainable growth." The EU needs to wake up to the problems of its ordinary citizens. It needs to react with stimulus and solidarity. Unfortunately, such a reaction did not occur during Ireland's Presidency. I hope Lithuania will buck the trend.

I hope the spotlight that the Presidency brings will improve conditions for those citizens held in Lithuanian prisons. I am concerned with regard to the way Lithuania treats prisoners, particularly those from other member states. I recently raised this matter with the Lithuanian ambassador at a meeting of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs in the context of the condition of a particular Irish prisoner, Mr. Michael Campbell, who is being held at a facility outside Vilnius. Mr. Campbell has experienced many difficulties and has been subjected to closed visits. The High Court here and that in the North both refused to extradite prisoners to Lithuania on foot of the inhuman and degrading treatment meted out in the jail in which Mr. Campbell is being held. If there is anything Lithuania can do during its Presidency, it would be to improve the conditions of those Lithuanians, Irish and others who are imprisoned in its jails. Mr. Campbell's court case is due to be heard shortly and the DPP's Lithuanian counterpart has objected to the sentence originally imposed. I hope there will be a speedy outcome to the case and that he can be repatriated to this country.

The Tánaiste referred to his hope that the crisis is behind us. I do not believe anyone in Europe, regardless of the position he or she holds, is of the opinion that the crisis is behind us. It is clear that it is very much still in front of us. We must work collectively to arrive at new ways of addressing the crisis. As politicians who were elected to bring about change, we have a responsibility to provide leadership on this issue. The best way we can do that is to try in this Parliament, the European Parliament and elsewhere to find new ways to address the crisis which is having an impact on so many people throughout the EU.

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