72ND PLENARY SESSION 

Thank you, Chairman.  Chairman, I would like to welcome the Minister and Tánaiste to the Forum and thank him for his presentation this morning outlining the Progressive Democrat’s vision for Europe.  I am sure Minister McDowell would be aware that the former Leader of the PDs Mary Harney had said that she felt that Ireland should be closer to Boston than Berlin.  And it seems that after nine years of the PDs in government in this country Ireland is certainly nearer to Boston than Berlin. 

I was just interested to hear whether Minister McDowell would say this morning that he felt that the European Union could be closer to Boston than Berlin.  Now he did say at the beginning of his presentation that he wasn’t in favour of the EU moving in the direction of US style free market capitalism, but he also said about the EU social model that it was outdated and in retreat and that EU Member States could no longer afford it. 

Now in his responses to some of the earlier questions he then said that he didn’t know exactly what we meant by the European social model.  So I would like to suggest that what is generally meant by the EU social model is the idea that much of the wealth that is generated in the European Union Member States should go toward financing high quality public services for EU citizens and that this would promote much greater levels of social equality, social harmony and cohesion and I think the Scandinavian countries are a very good example of this rather than that wealth remaining in private hands. 

As far as the Green Party is concerned, behind the sort of seductive rhetoric of the PDs to do with competitiveness and free markets and so on, that the actual social values that underpin that economic ideology are deeply unattractive and that they are not likely to appeal to European citizens and I would like to hear the Minister’s view on that; that those values seem to be that inequality is a given and a necessary condition in any economy.  I think the Minister might have made some comments about that certainly in relation to the Irish economy in the past.  That wealthy business elites and that the entrepreneurial class are the most valuable sector of society and they should be protected by government policy.  There should be not social contract or sense of social solidarity unpinning economic activities, but rather that it should be every individual for themselves and individuals paying for what services they can afford.  And I think that inevitably leads, as has happened in the US, to general conditions of private wealth and public squalour where you have degraded public services being run often by reluctant governments and basically the poor left to largely fend for themselves. 

So I would just like to ask Minister McDowell why should this vision appeal to European citizens?  If this is the direction in which the PDs believe that the European Union should go, why should it appeal to European citizens?  They are more likely, I would feel, to do as the French voters and the Dutch voters did in the recent referendum on the Constitution and that is express their concerns about the whole neo‑liberal direction of the European Union by voting no to any further progression of the European project.

I would just like to ask one other question about the democratic deficit.  I was disappointed to see that Minister McDowell didn’t mention the issue of the democratic deficit within the European Union at all and I would like to ask him is he concerned or are the Progressive Democrats concerned about the relatively weak powers of the European Parliament compared to other parliaments around the world and also about the considerable powers of the unelected Commission?  These are largely executive powers over which citizens can exercise little, if any, influence. Thank  you.

72nd plenary session of the National Forum on Europe • Westin Hotel • College Green • Dublin 2 • Thursday 14 December 2006
Progressive Democrats leader, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell addressed the Forum on his party’s vision for Europe  

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European Affairs, National Forum on Europe by Deirdre