Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

This perfunctory debate on Europe sums up the approach of the Government and the establishment parties on the question of how we discuss Europe and the future of the EU. The approach of the establishment in this country is to be so-called good Europeans. What it means by that is that it votes for - again and again if necessary - successive neoliberal, militaristic treaties. What it also means is that it does the bidding of the central bankers in Europe and of the establishment within Germany by stabbing the Greek people in the back by saying no write-off is possible for them, while at the same time overseeing write-offs for the rich in this country. What it further means is going along with the process of the increasingly authoritarian anti-democratic, neoliberal nature of the European Union with no real discussion in this country, apart from at moments of referendums when we are hit over the head with massive propaganda about how we have to be good Europeans.

Let us deal with the reality. In 2012, Mario Draghi accurately said that the "European social model has already gone." The head of the ECB was right then. It goes back further than that in the sense that the dream of a social Europe never actually existed. What we always had was a big business project from the top, which as a result of major struggles in particular on the Continent, was forced to give important concessions. But now, in the age of neoliberalism, all of the illusions of a social Europe have been swept away. We have an openly authoritarian neoliberal, aggressive and imperialistic Europe.

The horror of the deaths of thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean is the face of this European project. For all its crocodile tears, the EU cannot wash its hands of that. It bears responsibility on a number of different levels. It bears responsibility for the humanitarian crisis from which people are fleeing in Libya, Syria and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East where its interventions for its own interests have played a role in developing these crises. The EU also bears a responsibility for its policy of "fortress Europe" whereby it refuses legal access to those fleeing crises. As a result of the crocodile tears there is talk of allowing 5,000 refugees into Europe, whereas last year more than 200,000 people attempted to make the crossing in desperation. The EU forces people into the hands of the criminal people smugglers who have no interest in their lives and who treat them as commodities. The EU bears responsibility more directly because of the cut in the Mare Nostrum programme, which is responsible for the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of migrants. It is a cut to save money but it is also a cut to move away from a vision of saving lives towards the securitisation and militarisation of European borders.

Externally, one has the horrific and murderous approach by the European Union to keep the consequences of its policies around the world away from European shores. Internally, the same reality is increasingly evident. In particular, it is manifest in the treatment of the Greek people and their government. The democratic mandate of the Syriza-led government has been thoroughly trampled upon by the mostly unelected European authorities. Blackmail has been threatened by the European Central Bank. The European Commission has demanded total defeat and retreat by the government and the European Council, composed of governments like that in Ireland, has said there is no possible deal for the Greek people. The EU is determined to prevent any political contagion of the status quoor to allow the idea that one can do things differently or break from the mantra that there is no alternative to austerity.

There are profound lessons for the left in how to challenge the Europe of the millionaires and billionaires. There are no mechanisms to change the existing situation in Europe incrementally in a social or progressive direction. Any Government which breaks with the austerity consensus is then faced with an onslaught of attacks and a denial of their democratic mandate. We therefore need governments willing to say "No, we are not going to pay debt of the bankers and bondholders" and to engage in a strategy, if necessary, of unilateral debt repudiation. We need governments willing to break with the logic of austerity and capitalism, which are written down within the rules governing the euro and the EU. We also need governments to stand up and refuse to be blackmailed by the threat of bringing down the banking system and forcing countries outside of the euro to respond through radical socialist measures, such as capital controls, public ownership of key sources of wealth and planning in the interests of people.

In that way we will lay the basis for a different, humane, democratic and socialist Europe operating in the interests of the millions and no longer for the millionaires.

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