Seanad debates

Thursday, 10 October 2002

Address by President of the European Parliament.

 

One of the big debates on convention in the future is how to connect national parliaments to the European legislative process. Let me conflate those issues in a certain way. We must go beyond the point of treating European Union policy as foreign policy. I know that foreign ministries and ministers like the package because it is part of their territory – and I make no point about our own Minister for Foreign Affairs. However, issues I mentioned earlier – health and safety, gender equality, environment protection, the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, etc. – are domestic. They are now deeply embedded in Irish public policy. We need a new way to deal with Europe. Ministers with responsibility for European affairs should take on the European role with much more vigour and, specifically, with more direct regular and constant accountability to and control by national parliaments.

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