Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Noonan. We are in a difficult space in the European Union. We are still seeing the backwash from the failed way we expanded. The book, The Light That Failed, by Stephen Holmes and Ivan Krastev, got it right in that Europe, as it expanded, told everyone that it was the end of history, that there was only one model, that we should do what the Commission said, that these were the rules and that we had no choice. That left a bitter taste in many of the accession countries that still has consequences today. We need to take that into account in any further expansion of the European Union, which we would support, to ensure we do not make the same mistakes.

In Germany, that factor is still at play. The big story in German politics now - the Christian Democrats working with the far right - is unsettling. I would imagine that Germany is looking inward rather than looking to Europe in those circumstances. The same is happening in France. Monsieur Macron announced his big initiative, but since then he has lost the political capital at home.

His loss of political capital means that no one takes the future of Europe programme that he set out as seriously. The UK, which is the third of the traditional three largest EU member states, has not only left the EU but almost seems willing to act as a rogue state in international affairs, if we believe what it has said as part of its negotiating position. This makes our place in Europe a difficult one.

Perhaps partly as a result of some of the knocks taken by the EU in recent years, it is moving towards a process which allows more subsidiarity. I will refer to two areas that were considered at a recent meeting of the European Council. On climate change, it has told nations that as they draft national energy and climate action plans, they should return with approaches that are appropriate to themselves within broad parameters. There was real concern yesterday in Brussels that the draft of the new climate law shows a lack of ambition. This may be because of the current lack of certainty in Europe and lack of leadership because of the division between east and west within the EU. There has been a failure to set a higher 2030 target, although it may well come - we can expect it to come - in the coming months. That should not stop us. We are similar to Denmark and the Netherlands in size and our position within the EU. Like them, we should set ourselves ambitious targets for 2030 as the House has already done. The closing action of the Committee on Climate Action in the last Dáil was to commit each party to a 50% reduction by 2030. No matter what happens in the EU, we should stay on that course because it will bring Ireland economic opportunity and place ourselves as leaders rather than laggards on this critical issue.

Similarly, I understand that the Commission is leaving considerable flexibility to each nation state in how it implements Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, reform. We accept the nine goals, including a fair income for farmers, addressing the power imbalance that exists at the moment, tackling environmental issues and ensuring we have good rural development. Accepting the broad outline goals set by the EU, it is up to us to decide how we implement CAP reform. I support the comments of Deputy Micheál Martin and others that we should look to enhance our contribution as part of a more dynamic Union which functions better. If funding does not come from Europe, we will have to set funding aside ourselves to support whatever CAP proposals we set to ensure our farmers are paid a proper income and we address the crisis in our own way.

These are only two of the issues which were considered but they are two of the biggest and they are connected. We must show leadership even if the Union remains in an uncertain state.

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