Speech by FF Leader during Dáil Statements on EU Council

The events of the past two and a half months have once again highlighted the great strengths and serious weaknesses of the European Union as currently constructed.

The failure of leaders participating in the European Council’s summits to agree a radical response to a unique emergency should be of grave concern to everyone.

Measures which have been announced are welcome – and they will help – but they go nowhere near providing the scale and range of action which Europe needs if it is to recover quickly.

For a few years Fianna Fáil has been pushing for Ireland to take a more active role in not just defending Europe but in helping to develop Europe. We have called for this country and its partners to break free of the defensive posture which has been adopted in response to the anti-EU rhetoric of the right and the left.

A debate which looks at every issue as a zero-sum game defined by who gets “our money” has been highly destructive in the past and it will continue to be so.

Collectively we have asked the EU to take a lead in promoting innovation, guaranteeing food security, promoting regional development, securing our energy supplies, tackling long-term unemployment, ensuring we address the climate emergency, stabilising and reforming the financial system and many other tasks.

And now we look to it, to limit the financial damage of a severe pandemic and help countries to recover from a profound economic shock.

But the simple fact is that the European Union has been denied the resources and powers it needs to deliver the agenda we have set for it.

A budget limited to a combined national income of 1%. A range of measures designed to limit fiscal transfers. A ban on raising collectively assured debt. A requirement that all emergency funding be taken from existing programmes.

And on top of this, the European Central Bank, the one institution which is willing to act with true urgency and ambition is under assault as a result of a remarkable judgement from the German Constitutional Court.

It should be of grave concern that the Court believes that the ECB’s measures are “disproportionate to the economic and fiscal policy effects”. It is hard to conceive of any circumstance more serious than the one we face today and the idea that the ECB’s response could be considered, to be disproportionate is almost bizarre.

While this is not something which is receiving a lot of attention today, this is just as serious as when there was an attempt to block the ECB action which saved the Euro from disintegration during the financial crisis.
So, while we welcome the measures agreed at the summit, and Ireland’s late conversion to supporting collective borrowing, we reject the idea that anywhere near enough has been agreed or that what has been agreed has been delivered.

Other than the outbreak of a war, there has never before been such a dramatic and rapid public health and economic shock. Just like every other country in Europe, Ireland does not yet really know the scale of the recovery challenge we face.

If the member states of the Union continue to block measures to develop new direct funding mechanisms, then the Union’s contribution will continue to be economically marginal.

If ever there was a time to reflect on the importance of cooperation between states and strong shared institutions this is it. Without the international public organisations, the world would be in a much, much worse position today.

While there should be a comprehensive and independent inquiry into the early stages of the pandemic – an inquiry focused on what can be done better next time – the WHO has proven its value and we strongly support the efforts to secure its funding.

We also believe we should acknowledge the work of the European Centre for Disease Control. It is not a high-profile EU body, but it does essential work in sharing information and coordinating responses amongst EU members.

It is also important to acknowledge the work of scientists working in our universities and institutes. On top of being central to much of the response here, many teams are working on different parts of the challenges of developing both treatments and vaccines.

It is a reminder to us of the importance of having a wide research base and that not all of this can or should be linked to commercial objectives.

The societal and public health benefits which come from having a broad range of scientific expertise here are simply undeniable.

A development of deep concern in the past two months has been the way in which some governments appear to see the pandemic as an opportunity to entrench themselves. The effective suspension of parliament in Hungary is clearly a major breach of the core democratic principles which Hungary signed up to when seeking membership of the European Union.

Every country has had to implement emergency measures to respond to the pandemic, but the powers grabbed by the Orban government go well beyond anything seen elsewhere.

In many countries there have been questions about whether the media has been challenging enough concerning government action – but only in Hungary has the government taken major new censorship powers.

One decree in recent weeks has given the government the power to effectively confiscate money from local authorities without appeal. So far, this power has only been used to take money from districts controlled by the opposition – and the combination of suspending parliamentary oversight and controlling the media means that there has been no means of challenging this.

In this context, the sense that the Viktor Orban can act with impunity and the EU Council will do nothing is deeply corrosive of the foundations of the Union. One of the highest net recipients of EU support, whose economy is profoundly based on free access to the Single Market, is challenging the basic idea that you must be a free democracy with genuine checks on power if you are to be a member of the Union.

To simply ignore this and hope it will sort itself out isn’t good enough.

Last week the European Parliament raised its concerns about the possible watering-down of a Commission report on the spreading of pandemic disinformation. It is not yet clear what happened but there should be no doubt about core principles.

The spreading of disinformation by states outside of the EU has reached dramatic proportions in the last decade. The efforts to support the far-left and far-right has been a core part of a strategy to undermine democracy and the Union itself. In recent months there has been widespread evidence of conspiracy theories and false claims being created and spread relating to the origins and impact of the virus.

Member states rely on the institutions of the Union to monitor and report honestly about this issue. Under no circumstances should the honest assessment of relevant experts be watered down or censored. At a minimum there should be a comprehensive explanation of what happened in this circumstance and any removed material should be published.

In terms of specific measures taken during the Summit what we need is to move as quickly as possible to implementation. The delay which has characterised funding initiatives in recent years can’t continue.

Equally we support the call of President Macron and the French Minister for Finance to return to discussing more ambitious actions.

Obviously, Brexit hasn’t gone away and it appears likely that there will be major decisions to be taken in the coming weeks and months.

This will be discussed at length tomorrow, so I will leave most of Fianna Fáil’s comments to that session. However, it is important to state today that the threat of a chaotic Brexit remains and the need for us to prepare for all eventualities is more significant than ever.

The extraordinary position of London that no EU office will be agreed for Belfast appears like a demonstration of bad faith concerning the operationalising of what has been agreed relating to Northern Ireland.

It may be some form of negotiating tactic, the logic of which remains hidden. However, there is nothing positive about London citing a concern with community divisions in Northern Ireland which had not existed before.

No one in Northern Ireland appears to object to the idea that there be an EU office in Belfast, so the Johnson government’s position is both of concern and potentially highly divisive.