Time to rethink our relationship with Berlin and Boston

It’s unlikely Leo Varadkar will be hurrying through Dublin airport departures any time soon. But, if he is, he should keep an eye out for the striking ad in Terminal One for An Post.

A man stands on an Irish headland and stares west at the Manhattan skyline, mulling the world of potential on the far side of the Atlantic.

It's a striking image, particularly for its parallels to one of Germany's most beloved paintings – Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich.

If An Post’s ad agency wasn’t aware of the Friedrich painting, their advert was striking as a timely reminder of Ireland’s eternal Boston-or-Berlin discussion.

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Seeing it, I wondered why the man is staring westward, and not at a fantastic European skyline bringing together the Eiffel Tower, Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Berlin’s TV tower?

Not everyone in Ireland is aware of it but, thanks to Brexit, Ireland is once again foremost in German minds.

Whether in media coverage or casual conversation, there are times when the average German seems far more aware and concerned about the consequences of Brexit on Ireland than our English cousins.

Opportunity

That is an opportunity to be grasped: to move Ireland beyond its eurocrisis bailout narrative in countries such as Germany and to move it into a new role in the European Union. But Ireland has to want this, and – more to the point – it has to know what it wants.

Enda Kenny’s two post-Brexit meetings in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel were a final diplomatic coup for the departing taoiseach, culminating in the German leader name-checking Ireland and its concerns in the Bundestag.

But his first successful Brexit lap is no cause for complacency now. If Ireland wants concessions or special deals in the upcoming EU reform debate, what is it prepared to pay into the goodwill account?

French president Emmanuel Macron is fizzing with ideas to re-engage Europeans. He is thinking big. Where are the ideas of the Varadkar administration? Is Dublin thinking big or small? Progressive or regressive?

On the looming eurozone reform debate, it’s not enough for Ireland to think small in the hope of avoiding discussion of our corporate tax rate, the cornerstone and Achilles heel of our economy and psyche. The tax reform debate is already under way. The question is now how Ireland rolls with it.

The last time the Global Irish Forum met in Ireland, there was widespread agreement among delegates that more needed to be done to close the gap to Germany. As our heavy-hitter diaspora meets again next November, what has happened on the German front since its last gathering?

In Berlin, Merkel’s leading advisers are very clear about what Germany expects from northern EU member states in post-Brexit Europe. If the Irish, Dutch or others want certain views to persist in the EU debates – tax or trade views previously communicated most loudly by Britain – it is up to them to step up and voice them.

But to do this effectively, you need to prepare the ground. For that, it would be a pleasant change to see an Irish politician coming to Berlin or Frankfurt bearing good ideas or soft diplomatic gifts such as funding for co-operation in research or the arts.

Mentality shift

We need a mentality shift in Ireland towards Germany. It is more than a place to go to when you have an ask. It is a great place to start a debate.

And the time for that is St Patrick’s Day. No disrespect to the United States and the Irish-American community, but sending half the Cabinet to the US is overkill. Given the Brexit talks and EU reform debate, it would make more sense to rebalance resources and send more heavy hitters to continental Europe.

Where is it written that the US president enjoys a monopoly on a bowl of shamrock from Ireland? Munich has Europe’s largest St Patrick’s Day parade. Why shouldn’t it be visited by the Taoiseach?

If Varadkar wants to relive his struggle to get a restaurant table in Chicago, he would feel right at home in a heaving Oktoberfest test after meeting the Bavarian state premier. Leo in Lederhosen? He’d break Twitter.

The point is this: if we don’t sow now in Europe, there will be precious little for us to reap in the years ahead. Ireland is on Germans’ minds, just as Germany is on many people’s minds here. It is time to grab Brexit as an opportunity to move beyond Ireland’s transactional relationship with Europe and with its largest members, France and Germany.

A new generation in Varadkar’s Cabinet – my generation – has stepped up to the task of reordering Ireland’s role in Europe. This is no longer about Boston or Berlin, it is about both, about rebalancing the benefits we enjoyed from our J1 and Erasmus exchange opportunities.

The post-Brexit reform process is a chance for Ireland to remind our European partners that we can be a constructive partner rather than perennial supplicant.

As one door closes on Germany’s federal election, another door swings open on the EU reform debate. When will Varadkar follow his colleagues from France and the UK and deliver a big speech on Europe. And where?

Here’s an idea for Varadkar: next year, why not visit Hamburg – Merkel’s birthplace – to mark the 200th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea of Fog.

Derek Scally is Berlin Correspondent