Senator De Búrca contributes to the debate ‘What does the Lisbon Treaty mean for citizens of smaller countries?’ at the National Forum on Europe
89TH PLENARY SESSION
Thank you, Chairman. Chairman, I would like to welcome Jens‑Peter Bonde to the Forum today and just to say that I have great admiration for Jens‑Peter for all of the work that he has done over the years in terms of trying to promote greater democracisation of the European Union. I think he has produced an awful lot, many texts of treaties that have made them much more accessible to ordinary members of the public and I know he is fully committed to seeing the European Union becoming a more democratic political entity.
I also admire him because I know it is difficult being on a side where maybe you are raising criticisms of a project that has so much political support across the European Union. I know from the Green Party’s point of view we were in that position certainly on previous treaties and it is very difficult to be that voice and it is very difficult when you experience the backlash when people don’t like to hear the criticisms you are making and maybe find fault with it. I think it is an important role. I think the European Union is a very developed political project at this stage, but it is continuing to evolve and I think we do need critical voices to point to some of the deficits. I don’t think anybody would argue that the European Union is a perfect political project at the moment. It definitely needs to reflect on areas in which it can become more relevant to its citizens, more democratic, more transparent in its operations. So I think your voice and the voice of people like you is incredibly important.
A number of issues I’d just to touch on briefly with you. You mentioned the issue of the difficulty you had with this idea of double citizenship. I would j like to say that I am surprised to hear you say that because my own experience is that, and I think it is in the Lisbon Treaty that there’s a recognition that the national citizenship is the primary citizenship and that European citizenship is, and I can’t remember the wording that is used but my understanding is it is complimentary to that. Certainly from an awful lot of younger people that I meet who have travelled and worked in Europe and feel very much European, they are very confident in their sense of being primarily an Irish citizen but also a citizen of the European Union. I would not necessarily see a conflict or an undermining of the national citizenship because of that acceptance of the European citizenship. So maybe you could comment on that again.
The whole issue of a Commissioner per Member State I would like to pick you up on that as well because I know the argument and the Green Party certainly made the argument in the past about the importance of having a Commissioner per Member State. But I think, first of all, there is the argument about the enlargement of the European Union and whether it will be possible to continue to have a functioning Commission with a direct representative on it from every Member State of the European Union. But there is also the question, I think people have raised this here, there has been a traditional perception of the Commission or the Commissioners from our own Member States as representing our interests out there. I don’t think that was ever intended. I think the Commission was always intended to represent the European interest and Commissioners were to take an oath of independence and the idea that you could be giving, let’s say, a Commissioner from Germany, a large Member State, a particular portfolio and then assuming that somehow that the Commissioner will be using that portfolio to advance the interests of his or her own Member State, I think it would be a dangerous one. So, in fact, the rotating Commission, the fact that Commissioners will be rotated and there won’t necessarily be that direct link between Member States and the Commission portfolio I don’t necessarily think would be a bad thing and I would just like to hear your comments on that. Thanks very much.
89th plenary session of the National Forum on Europe • Royal Hospital Kilmainham • Dublin 8 • March 2008
Chair of the Independence/Democracy Group in the European Parliament Mr Jens Peter Bonde MEP addressed the theme ”What does the Lisbon Treaty mean for citizens of smaller countries?”
