Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We are asked today to make statements on Europe Day so let me make a statement straight off the bat. Europe is complicit in the genocide that is taking place in Gaza and under that blanket, nothing else matters. When the Tánaiste spoke earlier, in Trumpian fashion, he equated the right and the left and spoke of a collective cynicism about the EU as if those two groups shared the same viewpoints or perspective. It could not be any further from the truth.

To avoid that charge of cynicism to a degree, I will start with the usual tropes I would often offer on a day like this by saying that for many years I have been a proud member of the EU. It was something I held dear as I believe does the generation from which I come. I fully understand that when Ireland joined the EU in 1973, it accelerated it into modernity. I am often reminded of the quote from John McGahern who said that Ireland was in many ways a 19th-century agrarian society right up to the 1980s and then bypassed the 20th century. I equate EU membership with that.

However, the pride I previously took in it has in many ways been desecrated. Today when asked to make a statement on Europe Day, I cannot express anything other than pure revulsion at what I am seeing in the world and at the EU's complicity and that of the most prominent member states in what is happening in Gaza.

As has been and should be said countless times, the EU was born from the pursuit of peace propelled by a refusal to ever again allow fascism to fester. It was born out of a belief that "never again" should mean never again regardless of who for and who against. Now the EU finds itself complicit in the very evils I understood it was born to stamp out.

Spearheading this complicity is Ursula von der Leyen, who is unashamedly partisan in favour of the Israeli state and its crimes against Palestine, a state which, with the attention of all the world on it, is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing and has violated every human rights law and principle imaginable. That was before the enforced apartheid, when it built the world's largest open-air prison in Gaza and the West Bank. Frau von der Leyen has emboldened Benjamin Netanyahu and his fascist government by sweeping their crimes under the rug and very clearly turning a blind eye to their barbarism. If you think that is hyperbole on my part, when I say they turned a blind eye, I note that our Taoiseach, whose rhetoric has been strong, in contrast to our European neighbours, has, along with the Spanish Prime Minister, written to the EU asking a simple question: has Israel, through its crimes and the war it is waging in Gaza, breached Article 2 of the EU Israeli trade agreement? For me this is a very simple question that should have been asked. The Social Democrats were pushing that for a long time. As is my understanding, up to this point, there has not even been a response. When I say they turn a blind eye to all that barbarism, there is all the evidence you need.

The Commission and its President spent many of the early weeks of this genocide referring only to the fact that Israel had a right to defend itself, without ever mentioning its obligations to uphold international human rights law. This is all Frau von der Leyen had to say as the cold-blooded murder of countless innocent Palestinians took place in plain sight. Those countless deaths, combined with international pressure and extreme criticism, has led von der Leyen to call on Israel to simply respect the laws of war - no consequences, though. When Frau von der Leyen uttered those words from one side of her mouth, she kept the other side closed, avoiding pointing out that Israeli authorities are responsible for the mass deaths of civilians in Gaza and that the Israeli state is no better than a band of war criminals. This hypocrisy is wholly characteristic of Frau von der Leyen's term in office. She took a strong stand in favour of justice and accountability - rightfully - for the crimes Russian forces are committing in Ukraine, but has refused to do the same for the shooting, bombings and all-round obliteration of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Last week at a debate in Maastricht, Frau von der Leyen said it would be completely unacceptable for Israel to attack Rafah, and yet here we are, as the bombs rain down on Rafah. What does the European Union have to say? Will there be consequences? Very clearly there will not be. Under Frau von der Leyen's leadership, the European Union has failed in its founding promise to be a peace project. Yesterday, the newspaper articles and the headlines said that Ursula von der Leyen maintains that the European Union must turbocharge its rearmament process. To that, many of us say to Frau von der Leyen that we have heard that story before. We know where it ends and we know whose lives will be lost. It will be millions of working-class lives led to the slaughter in the name of their cruel version of a Europe that existed not too long ago.

Sharing her complicity is the European People's party, which has shown nothing but tolerance for far-right elements growing in the EU. This normalisation is reflected in the national politics and the culture. The EPP is already governing at national level in alliances with far-right parties in Italy, Finland and Sweden. It is no wonder that under this legitimacy and normalisation that intolerance and fascist rhetoric are growing at an unprecedented rate throughout Europe. We should be hypervigilant to this here in Ireland.

As long as the likes of the EPP hold power in Europe, we will never see the fulfilment of the peace project our Union is meant to embody. How can we celebrate Europe Day when Palestine is being bombed from existence, without any substantial EU resistance beyond EU complicity in terms of the armaments that are being rained down on Gaza? How can we celebrate Europe Day when protests in Germany, in the Irish language or any other language, have simply been banned? Do we not say to Germany, "How dare you? Banning the Irish language and protest in Germany: in whose name?" If Europe is to be anything, it is to be a peace project. If I were to celebrate today, I think I would be betraying that very simple principle and I will not be.

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