Seanad debates

Thursday, 10 October 2002

Address by President of the European Parliament.

 

Let me speak about the European Union and all of the EU-knocking copy. Every multilateral engagement of this State – the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the OECD, any of the sub-organisations of the UN – is conducted through government and diplomacy. There is some democratic accountability to the Houses of the Oireachtas but it is modest in proportion to the volume of work that goes on. The European Union is the only multilateral engagement by this State where there is a panoply of democratic accountability built into its heart in constitutional terms, and a rigorous system of judicial review as a parallel and separate exercise. None of the other multilateral agencies and bodies with which we are engaged has that characteristic. Already, therefore, by that measure, in terms of international engagement, it is already recognisably more democratic. There is work to do. However, the missing link is a greater role for national parliaments. That hinges on the future.

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