Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Tá tábhacht bhreise ag baint le Lá na hEorpa i mbliana do mhuintir na hÉireann. Táimid ag comóradh 50 bliain mar bhall den Aontas Eorpach. Bhí ról tábhachtach ag ár mballraíocht i bhforbairt na tíre seo ó 1973 i leith. This year's Europe Day has additional significance for the Irish people. We are marking 50 years as a member of the European Union. Our membership has played an important part in our country's development since 1973. The story of a modern, prosperous, and progressive 21st century Ireland is interwoven with the development of the European Union. It is impossible to talk about trade and the economy, farming and food, the green agenda, peace on this island or the development of citizens' rights without reference to the role played by our EU membership. Regional, structural and agricultural funds in particular have helped provide vital investment in essential infrastructure, in our rural and farming communities and in the education and training of our people. It is the story of an extraordinary transformation that I hope will offer inspiration to those countries now looking to join the EU from Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia to the countries of the western Balkans.

The European Union is, first and foremost, built on a set of values and on the rule of law and the treaties that underpin it. This underpins the sharing of sovereignty and deep-rooted cooperation between member states. These values include respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality and human rights. We live in a European Union in which democracy, freedom of religion, the rule of law, rejection of the death penalty, basic rights for LGBT people and equality between men and women are the norm. This is not the case on most other continents.

Founded in the aftermath of the devastation of the Second World War, the European Union was conceived as a peace project. John Hume, one of our greatest statesmen, saw in the European Union a model and a vision for how a lasting peace could be built. The European Union was a dependable partner throughout the peace process and remains resolute in its support for the Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement. Without the courage and vision of leaders from right across the political traditions of these islands, we would not have the peace we enjoy today. We would not have had prosperity or investment on the scale we have experienced. As we face new challenges, we should not lose sight of this. We will continue to engage with all communities and traditions on the island to build a vision for our shared future with an inclusive, constructive approach, underpinned by the agreement.

The Windsor Framework recently agreed between the EU and the UK can play an essential role in protecting the Good Friday Agreement and in providing economic opportunities to Northern Ireland. It is critically important that we continue this partnership approach and that the framework is implemented fully and in good faith. I hope we are marking a positive new departure for EU-UK relations that will allow us to forge a stronger partnership to overcome shared global challenges and create an opportunity for an improved British-Irish partnership. My current focus is on getting the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement up and running across all three strands. The framework is clearly for and about Northern Ireland, about providing the stability and predictability that Northern Ireland needs. I firmly hope the Windsor Framework will play a role in securing additional investment for Northern Ireland, as well as in offering real economic benefits to us. The Framework has been welcomed by the business community in the North, which has expressed a genuine desire to move forward and take advantage of the opportunities and economic certainty it offers.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Single Market, which opened the door to Ireland’s economic success. As we reflect on the development of the Single Market, it is fitting to recall the significant role played by the late Minister and former Senator James Dooge. During Ireland's Presidency of the Council in 1984, James Dooge was appointed to chair a group tasked with making suggestions for improving European co-operation. There were concerns at the time that Europe’s economy risked falling behind in the face of new global competition and that its development needed new strategic impetus. James Dooge’s Ad Hoc Committee for Institutional Affairs reported to the European Council in Dublin in December 1984. Its conclusions provided the political underpinnings for the action plan adopted by the Delors Commission in 1985 to abolish all physical and technical barriers to free movement in the Community within seven years.

The Single European Act came into force in 1987 with the clear aim of stimulating industrial and commercial expansion in a large, unified economic area. The Single Market is now the cornerstone of the European economy and a driver of innovation and prosperity, reducing transaction costs, aligning regulatory standards and rules and opening access to a market of more than 450 million people. The Council and Commission have correctly identified that the further reduction of barriers, especially for services, is essential if it is to remain the primary driver of the EU's competitiveness. In my contributions to the European Council, I have emphasised that Europe’s long-term strategy for future prosperity must be based on our economic strengths and on ensuring the right market conditions for investment and entrepreneurship in the decades ahead. This includes greater mobilisation of public and private resources through the European research and innovation system. We also need to develop our capital markets to finance new fast-growing firms at the technological frontier of the twin transitions of digital and green. Our Single Market must also be complemented by an open and ambitious trade policy, based on the highest levels of co-operation with trusted partners, in order that we can advance global prosperity. We must protect the multilateral rules-based system and defend against unfair trading practices. We should see the Single Market as a level-playing field for the member states, which was built as a driver of twenty-first century standards, especially social and environmental standards.

Climate change is the single greatest threat facing humanity today. We must be the generation that turns the tide on climate change and biodiversity loss. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, tells us that human activity has already caused the global temperature to reach more than 1oC above pre-industrial levels. The scale of this change is unprecedented. The European Union is the world’s leader in spearheading the fight against climate change. It has made the green transition a core objective; endorsed a binding target of a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 of at least 55%; and aims to become the first climate-neutral continent by the middle of the century. With its member states, the EU is also the largest provider of climate finance in the world, helping developing countries to deal with the adverse effects of climate change. The Fit for 55 landmark package of ambitious climate policy measures will be formally agreed in the coming weeks and will turn ambition into action. Europe’s response to the pandemic, particularly in funding and procuring vaccines, showed us what can be achieved when we work in unison for the common good. We now need to harness this same ambition and commitment to confront climate change.

The energy crisis caused by Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine reinforces the need for Europe to accelerate the radical transformation of our energy system. This includes placing energy security, efficiency, energy saving, diversification and an acceleration towards renewables at the heart of our climate and energy policies. At the recent North Sea Summit in Ostend, I made it clear that Ireland is ready to play its part. We have a sea area that is seven times bigger than our landmass and we are home to Europe’s best wind speeds. Developing our offshore wind energy capacity will, over time, eliminate our dependence on imported fossil fuels and allow Ireland to achieve energy independence within a generation. This is our moonshot, giving us energy security and price stability and creating new jobs and industries in all parts of Ireland as well as reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. We will work closely with our regional partners and the European Commission to provide the offshore grids and electricity interconnection that will enable the trading of offshore renewable energy with the rest of Europe. The Celtic interconnector between Ireland and France should be seen as just the start.

As public representatives, we recognise the tangible benefits that European Union membership brings. The ability to work, live and study freely across the European Union is immensely valuable. It is not only about economics. We share a common currency with 19 other member states, reducing transaction costs and easing trade and travel. For students, participation in the Erasmus programme and studying abroad has opened the door to new cultures, languages and career paths.

More than 10 million students have had their lives enriched through this programme, initiated by the former Irish EU Commissioner Peter Sutherland. Many people make friends for life through Erasmus+ and many people find life partners through Erasmus+ and start new families.

Travel is more accessible and affordable because of the single European sky and European legislation has increased safety standards and improved passenger rights. Mobile phones can be used across the European Union without any additional roaming charges. Irish consumers can safely and easily buy goods and services throughout the EU. Equal pay for equal work, family leave and many other workers’ rights derive from and are protected by European law. The European health insurance card and the cross-border directive provide for free or reduced cost healthcare across the wider European Economic Area when we need it.

As someone born after Ireland joined the European Economic Community, EEC, I have always lived with the benefits of European membership but I have never taken them for granted, having canvassed for a "Yes" vote in every referendum put to the people of this country on Europe since I was 19 years old. European integration is fundamentally a political project, driven by generations of Christian democrats, social democrats and liberals but it has never had universal support. We see the strength of Euroscepticism in many European countries and we have seen its end consequences with Brexit in the United Kingdom. In Ireland, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were the only parties to support joining Europe 50 years ago. Labour came on board later and has been enthusiastically pro-European for many decades. The Green Party initially opposed European integration but has supported further integration for more than a decade.

This is not the case when it comes to Sinn Féin and radical left parties like People Before Profit. They opposed joining, opposed the Single Market, opposed the four freedoms, opposed EU citizenship and opposed the Euro. Sinn Féin has campaigned for a "No" vote in every European treaty put to the people in this State by referendum. Their leader was also leader of many of these "No" campaigns. While it has moved a lot since then, Sinn Féin remains a Eurosceptic and euro-critical party. Its manifesto commits to withdrawing from permanent structured co-operation, PESCO, the European Union’s structured co-operation on defence and security. If this were to happen it would be the first time for Ireland to move away from Europe and integration since we joined 50 years ago. We would no longer be at the heart of Europe and aside from weakening our security, it would also send the wrong message about where Ireland sees itself in the world and about its place in Europe. Sinn Féin also virulently opposes the ratification of major EU free trade agreements and it boasts that it has done so for 20 years.

In the past 15 years the country has weathered many major threats, many of which were external in origin. These include the global financial crisis, Brexit, the pandemic and the energy and inflation shock caused by the war in Ukraine. If anything, we tend to emerge stronger. The next big threat is not an external one but an internal one, taking the form of a radical change to our long-standing and successful policies on Europe, trade and the economy. This is not the change we need and it would be change for the worse. Like Brexit, it would make us poorer, less secure and less influential in the world. Particularly on a day like this, Europe Day, we should not be blind to this threat and we have a responsibility to call it out.

Throughout the last five decades, Ireland has sought to be a constructive, credible and positive partner. Our contribution across the full range of union policies has been to the benefit of Ireland and the EU as a whole. The greatest challenges we face today, whether it is the war in Ukraine or the urgent need to take action on climate, are increasingly global. They cannot possibly be met by individual countries acting alone. Even large countries cannot deal with issues so big. They can only be successfully confronted by working with our European Union friends and partners and in a global context.

Speaking to this House on our first Europe Day in 1973, former Taoiseach and then Minister for Foreign Affairs, the late Garret FitzGerald, looked ahead to Ireland making a constructive and positive contribution to the evolution of the European community. He said that the shape of Europe’s future evolution would be decisive to Ireland’s national development, as an economy and as a society. Speaking at a time when most of Europe’s population still lived under the yoke of communism, he described the challenge in the following terms:

This means that we must enlarge our horizons and be prepared to take a lead where in the past we have been content too modestly to follow. To this end we should try to mobilise the intellectual energies of our people, to stimulate thought on how this Community can increasingly become one in which the peoples of Europe will be proud to participate and to which they will feel a genuine loyalty deriving from their recognition of the contribution the Community can make to their own individual lives.

The late Dr. FitzGerald was a great European and one of many great Irish Europeans who helped bring this vision to reality over the last half-century. The European ideal has always been inspired by a spirit of optimism and a belief in a better future. Recent crises have tested that ideal but they have not broken it - indeed they have probably strengthened it. If the case for Irish membership was compelling 50 years ago, it is even more compelling now. Tá Aontas Eorpach an lae inniu níos mó agus níos éagsúla ná an ceann a ndeachaigh muid isteach ann in 1973. Is é ár mbaile gur chuidigh muid a thógáil, agus tá a bhunús láidir. Táimid ag súil go mór leis an gcéad 50 bliain eile de bhallraíocht le muinín agus le huaillmhian. Today the European Union is bigger and more diverse than the one we joined back in 1973. It is our home that we have helped to build, and its foundations are strong. We look forward to the next 50 years of membership with confidence and ambition.

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