John Bruton (Meath, Fine Gael)

It is indeed a great honour for me to address this House. I might have thought I would never have the opportunity to stand in this place again. I am very grateful to the Seanad for the honour it has done me in inviting me to address it as a humble Member of the Dáil. I have prepared some remarks which are available for circulation to Senators. I believe I have more copies than are required for the number of Senators in the House just now.

Before going in detail into the work of the Convention, I would like to deal with the contention that the European Union is developing into a super-state. Not only is the European Union not a super-state, it is not even a state. I say that because it has no right to use force and no right to raise an army – the key prerogatives that define a state. Furthermore, it has no right to raise taxes or to borrow money to meet current expenses. For all these things, the European Union has no prerogatives. It depends entirely on member states.

To underline the point, the key principle of European Union constitutional law is the principle of conferral. All powers of the Union are conferred on it voluntarily by member states. That principle is reaffirmed in the draft treaty being prepared in the Convention on the Future of Europe. What the European Union has is the power to make common policies and common laws, or laws in common, for the Union as a whole and its laws have supremacy over national laws where there is a conflict between them.