Seanad debates
Thursday, 11 December 2003
Address by Mr. Seán Ó Neachtáin, MEP.
I will pose a question which is perhaps in the same family of questions to which Senator Mansergh's query belongs. Within the European Community or among its parliamentarians, does Mr. Ó Neachtáin have any sense that this great European project is stumbling? I will not say faltering, but stumbling. A deep cynicism now exists among the people of Europe. My colleague, Senator Ormonde, has regularly noted in this House and in the National Forum on Europe that – if I have correctly interpreted her remarks – we are moving beyond the people and need to return to them. The Euro-barometer statistics published in the past two days indicated a very deep anti-European Union feeling, if not a Eurosceptic feeling, although Ireland and Luxembourg scored highly in the mid to high seventies in terms of approval for the EU. It is interesting that these are two small countries. That may be significant. As an MEP, is Mr. Ó Neachtáin getting a sense of all this in his dealings with other groupings and EU parliamentarians? I do not know the answer, but it seems there is a separation in that a European intellectual elite operates within the constitutional process, while other people are left outside.
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