Varadkar says EU could become ‘museum’ compared to US

The EU risks falling behind Donald Trump's America and could become a "museum piece" unless it allows member states spend more on infrastructure, according to Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar.

Mr Varadkar is scheduled to give a speech in Brussels on Thursday in which he will argue that the EU needs to relax its fiscal rules and allow more spending on long-term projects.

He will say that unless the EU broadly acts to assuage the concerns of citizens across the continent, the future of the Union is at risk.

Echoing comments recently by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, the Dublin West TD says greater spending on infrastructure is needed to ensure EU states keep pace with global competitors.

In the case of Ireland, Mr Varadkar says the economic recovery will not continue unless there is greater spending on infrastructure projects.

“Tight fiscal rules have limited capital spending, which in turn has limited the capacity of some of our economies to grow,” Mr Varadkar will tell the Institute of International and European Affairs.

“This might be appropriate for mature economies that already have good infrastructure built up over the decades, but it doesn’t work for countries with growing populations and underdeveloped infrastructure.”

Modern infrastructure

He will say that developing countries such as

India

,

China

and other Asian countries “are investing in modern infrastructure that risks leaving

Europe

looking like a museum piece”.

“In America the new administration talks about a major ramp-up in infrastructural spending. Europe should not allow itself to fall behind its global competitors.”

He says Irish capital budgets had to be significantly cut during the economic crisis, leading to infrastructure deficits in many areas. Unless there is additional investment in the coming years, “there is a grave danger that the economic development now under way will reach its limits or be choked off”.

Brexit and referendums in Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden have sent a warning that people across Europe are becoming alienated from the EU. "We cannot turn back the clock, but unless we act that sense of alienation will grow still further and may even threaten the Union's very existence."

He says the EU needs to tackle a number of big issues, such as migration, combating terrorism, trade and climate change.

European values

“In a more multi-polar world, liberal democratic European values are now much clearer and distinct from those that dominate in the US,

Russia

, China and the Middle East.”

Examples of this include opposition to the death penalty, equality for women, the disabled and LGBT people, and the European social model of healthcare, education and childcare.

Mr Varadkar says post-Brexit Ireland will need to build new alliances. “Brexit may present Ireland with the chance to seize the next phase in our development and maturity as a sovereign state. It will force us to forge relations and shape our destiny within the EU in the absence of our nearest neighbour and strongest ally.

“Once the British trigger article 50 a process will commence which will move the centre of power and influence on Brexit away from London and plant it firmly in Brussels. It’s in this city that the deal will be done, and in this city that the new parameters of British-European, Irish-European and British-Irish relations will be set.”