Date: 2013-01-16
A Uachtaráin, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le gach duine as ucht na n-oráidí breátha a thug sibh anseo ar maidin. I would like to thank the European Parliament for the interaction and engagement we have had here today. I speak as both the politician and leader of the government of my own country. I want you to understand that we have absolute respect for this Parliament, the elected Members of the peoples of the European Union. Politics for me has always been about people, first and last, and that is your remit, I am quite sure, as well. I would like to say to you that it is in Ireland's interest that we make this an effective Presidency, because I want to see our country emerge from the programme and exit from the programme in 2013. That is not just a good signal about Ireland, it is also a good signal about Europe. The founding principle of the European Union despite the absolute necessity for peace was also that big countries would work with small countries and that together the peoples would grow in importance of their economies and the opportunity to live their lives and do their business. It is time for Europe to realise that it stands at a crossroads and on this planet, and in a global sense, Europe has got to realise that it can do so much more by working together, by increasing the opportunity for economies to grow. Thank you all for your contributions. I would like to refer in general to a few things and make a few specific points. Just to be clear: in respect of Schengen governance, which has been raised here by a number of people, we hope to agree on this during this term, and the same applies in the case of asylum. With regard to Bulgaria and Romania in so far as Schengen is concerned, that is on the agenda for the March Justice Council meeting, and progress here will obviously depend upon partners where unanimity is required here. With regard to the MFF, Ms McGuinness and others raised this. This is an important message that I have heard here today. I have already had a meeting with President Schulz, and I intend to engage directly with Herman Van Rompuy and my colleagues at the European Council about this. This is the first time that the European Parliament has been indispensable to this process. The Lisbon Treaty makes this a codecision process, therefore it is important that Members of the European Council understand and appreciate that. We do need a budget and we need a budget soon, and that budget should be adequately resourced to provide the facilities for the Union for the time ahead. I have heard the messages about flexibility and own resources, and these are obviously central to a solution for the MFF. As holder of the Presidency, I pledge to work as a Presidency with this Parliament and our colleagues in the Council to see that this can be brought about as quickly as possible. In respect of the financial transaction tax raised by Mr Swoboda and a number of others, I want you to understand that Ireland has a stamp duty on transactions. We did not favour a financial transaction tax, because of our own international financial services centre with 35 000 jobs being so close to London. But that does not mean that we do not understand what enhanced cooperation means. Because there are more than 11 countries that now favour this, Ireland will not stand in its way. I can confirm for you that the first item on the agenda of the Euro Group next week, under the Chairmanship of the Irish Minister for Finance, is the question of the Financial Transaction Tax. In respect of the single market and youth unemployment, what is more important for any young person in this Union than to understand that they have opportunities? Opportunities to go and work where they would like to work, in an employment that would be suitable for them and that they would enjoy. That is what politics should be about: to create those opportunities. The world in which we live is changing at bewildering speed: genetics, biotech, nano-technology, robotics, all of these changes that are coming at us like a wave. We have the opportunity to have our young people make those waves of change for the people who are going to live on our planet for the next hundred years, and the platforms can be put in now by courage, trust, decisiveness and clarity at European level. In so far as we are concerned, with our Presidency we will work directly and very diligently in regard to the question of unemployed youth and the opportunity to motivate young people, to give them an inspiration that politics actually does work and that they can have an opportunity themselves to contribute. If we do not do that, there will be anger, rage, frustration, cynicism and this applies on the streets if we fail in that duty. Nothing is more important in the entire political spectrum than creating opportunities for people to contribute to the society in which we live. I have heard the scepticism being expressed by many people. I am a believer in politics and in political results and I am an optimist by nature. I think we can do something about this. In respect of economic progress, I agree with Mr Verhofstadt and Mr Cohn-Bendit that this is no time for complacency. There have been calls here for a firm hand on the tiller; let me assure you that the Irish Presidency can bring to bear its own experience in this matter. Our people have been pragmatic in understanding that the problem will not go away and will not sort itself out unless there is leadership and clear, decisive interaction with people. As applied in our country, and as does apply in our country, so too we can apply that across the European spectrum. Therefore, we need interaction and engagement with the two-pack urgently, and I hope that this happens. The importance has been raised here of the European development role, particularly in regard to hunger and poverty, raised specifically by Gay Mitchell. I think people should understand that, since the United Nations was formed, since the very first day of its formation, my country has been represented somewhere around the world in peacekeeping and dealing with issues of poverty, malnutrition, human rights and under-nutrition, and we will continue that. In fact, the major conference in Dublin in April will deal with climate change, malnutrition and under-nutrition. It is an issue in which we have an interest. I would like to say to you that the Presidency programme sets out specifically an issue dealing with maritime development marine development and I hope to have President Barroso in Galway in June to deal with the blue economy and the commencement of a strategy dealing with the Atlantic, which will have such important repercussions. Ms Gurmai mentioned about the European protection order, which helps promote the protection of women, and the Commission proposal for women on company boards. We hope to achieve agreement on that during the course of our Presidency here. I would like to say that, in respect of Mr Swoboda, we will not stand in the way of FTT in the Youth Employment and Youth Guarantee. We are going to work very hard on that. In respect of Schengen, as I say, that is underway. Ms Zimmer mentioned why I was more interested in the Germans and why I went to see the CSU: I did, and I went to see Cyprus as well, and everybody else included. I think it is important that you should understand this, because the CSU might have a particular view about programme countries. It is very important that a political leader could go and engage with politicians to explain the decisions that we made in our country in making progress to exit from our programme. That is why I went to see the CSU, so that I could get a clear understanding, Ms Zimmer, of what our country and our people have had to contend with. That is why it is important that people should also understand that, because we were one of the first countries in a programme, we had to borrow EUR 64 billion and put that on the backs of our electorate because European financial policy and European political policy at the time was that no bank should fail. We are the only country which has a situation where we have to repay three billion every year for 10 years in promissory notes. It has not happened to any other country, and that is why it is important for Ireland to exit this programme and that we get the support which has been committed to us by Europe for a long time. That is why we are negotiating with the ECB on one hand, and that is why I was very happy to see that the European Council was actually able to endorse on time the decision taken by the Euro Group to follow through on the decision of 29 June last to break the link between sovereign and bank debt and to move on now to the single supervisory mechanism, which will be the discussions undertaken by the Euro Group, which is being led by our own Minister for Finance. Mr Farage mentioned respect and rights and all the rest of it. I remember you here with your T-shirt saying 'respect the Irish vote'. We gave a very strong endorsement of the Fiscal Stability Treaty last year. Despite the difficulties that people had, they said: 'the place to be is in Europe, the place to hang on to is the euro, we see real opportunities here'. People ask what advice I would give to Prime Minister Cameron. I do not know what the Prime Minister is going to put in his speech, but I want you to understand this. We have very close relationships with our British counterparts. We signed a strategic partnership agreement with him last year. There are 50 000 Irish people serving on the boards of British companies. As far as I am concerned, Britain has always been a fundamental part of the European Union a driver of the Single Market and would stand to gain enormously from being intensely involved in the new trade discussions with Japan, Canada, India and Singapore, and most importantly of all, when we get a mandate to open negotiations for free trade agreements between the United States and the European Union. This holds enormous potential for every one of us. Mr Bütikofer mentioned that there was no mention of industry in my contribution here. I did say that the important thing is to raise the economies of Europe, and we can do that together. We have got a thousand multinationals in our country to help drive our exports, and we are concentrating, as President Schulz knows, on small and medium enterprises to stimulate confidence in our own indigenous economy. If this is reflected across the board in Europe, think of the potential for jobs, opportunity, investment in industry, investment in research and creativity. Our own Commissioner is dealing with a very important budget from that point of view. I see trade and the opportunity to be creative for the future as being so important for young Europeans, the next generation coming behind us. It is our responsibility to put in place the platforms upon which they can have a prosperous existence. Mr Reul said: 'you give us courage', yes, and to use the tools that we have, which are enormous in extent and capacity, and we hope to give examples of that during our Presidency. The question of the peace situation in Northern Ireland was raised by Ms Anderson and others. I want you to understand that I raised this deliberately with Mr Van Rompuy, and I have thanked Parliament, the Commission and the Council over the years for their continuing support for the peace process in Northern Ireland. Believe you me, this took politicians of all parties very many years to win a hard-won peace, and we are not going to lose that because of thugs or by those who want to disrupt that peace process and destroy the economy of Northern Ireland and the people who make that work. That is why Parliament has been so important in continuing its funding for that peace process, and I thank all of you right across the spectrum for what you have done in that regard. In respect of the need for tolerance, social cohesion and non-discrimination, we support that, obviously. Mr Murphy raised the question of having to come to Europe to beg, as he said, for support. I want Mr Murphy to understand he is not actually elected to this Parliament that Irish governments over the year have not been to Europe with a begging-bowl mentality but one that is central to the development of Europe for everybody else. The fantasy economics of thinking that you can just say 'forget your liabilities', 'forget your responsibilities', is just not valid. We want Mr Murphy to assure everybody that Ireland has always paid its way, but it needs to be done in a fair and balanced way for everybody involved here. We intend to exit our programme and will discuss with the ECB about re-engineering and re-structuring those promissory notes. At the other end of the spectrum, in respect of the European Council decision of 29 June, we will follow that through. There is a role for the MFF in investment in Horizon 2020, CAP, CFP, cohesion, etc. Ms Harkin mentioned about exiting the programme, as did Mr Higgins and Mr Seán Kelly, and we appreciate that. This, after all, is the year of the citizen. It behoves every one of you every one of us to be able to explain to our people the purpose of the European Union: what it means to feel to be a European, to have pride in the European Union and to understand that, together, we have the opportunity to make the Union of 500 million people which others want to join the opportunity to be a really strong global player. I hope to welcome the Croatian people as full members of the European Union on 1 July. Let me assure you that, in respect of the CAP reform, Minister Coveney has been engaging with all his counterparts. This is very important. We need to see that budget well structured and well financed. It is still capable of delivering the most jobs in manufacturing in the European Union. It is absolutely important in the context of food security and a growing global population that we deal with that, and I expect that we will during this Presidency as well. Obviously there were a range of other matters that were raised here. I do not want to go into them all. We will progress the file on growth and unemployment during the Presidency. I hope that, at the end of our six months, we will have demonstrated that a good news story for Ireland is a good news story for Europe. The situation in so far as Mali and other countries is concerned has been discussed at European Council. We are taking a very strong view here. I note the interaction and the discussions taking place with Vice-President Ashton in respect of Mali, in particular, and Syria, where Christian torture has grown beyond belief. It is catastrophic in so many ways. Let us hope that Europe can play its part in dealing with these very serious issues. The question was asked by Mr Bufton about the Tánaiste, my Deputy Prime Minister. We have a very clear understanding of the conditions of membership of the European Union: it is to make them work better in the interest of everybody. That should be our remit. I do not see a situation where you can have 27 different conditions of membership for countries of the one Union. From that point of view, while we have great respect for our colleagues, it is a case of working towards what we can achieve with the single market, the digital market, the new trade agreements and so on. We have an enormous agenda over the next number of months, but I want to assure you in this Parliament, which I respect absolutely, that we will work as a Presidency with you, President Schulz, and with the members of your institution here, the Members of Parliament. As I said, this is the first time that codecision applies here, and the European Council of which I am honoured to be a Member cannot believe that it takes decisions as an individual institution. This is codecision. You represent the peoples of 500 million. So from that point of view, we will engage with you, with Herman Van Rompuy and with the others, to see if we can put an MFF in place as quickly as possible which will allow us to engage with Parliament, the CAP, the 70 files of legislation that must be gone through and all of that. This is the first time I have addressed the plenary session of the European Parliament. I thank you for your indulgence and your silence. In Ireland this year we are having a major gathering. We are inviting people from all over the world to come to our country, and any of you who want to see how a country in challenging times is able to measure up to the conditions and still live with hope for a brighter future, please come and engage with us. You will help us in that way to understand that, if Ireland can do this, so can Europe. We are with you all the way.