MacGILL SUMMER SCHOOL: The EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, has challenged those oppose to the Nice Treaty to outline what damage the European Union has done to Ireland over the past 30 years.
In his address to the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, yesterday, he wondered why certain groups were so vehemently opposed to the treaty and to the EU itself.
"Has the European Union damaged our economy?" he asked. "Has it undermined the social fabric of our country? Has it contributed to any cultural erosion? Clearly, the answer to all of these is that the EU has done no damage at all, but has been hugely beneficial."
He accused most of the "naysayers" of relying on "predictions of doom and gloom" - none of which had come true - and expressed the view that the anti-Nice lobby was "unreasonably preying on the understandable anxieties of the Irish people". He felt we were "Euro-anxious" rather than Eurosceptic or Europhobic, which was not necessarily a bad thing. People would not accept European developments without at least questioning them.
"There are big changes ahead and it is perfectly correct that they should be questioned; this, in turn, places an increased onus on the political, economic and social leadership to explain developments," he said. Stating that a No vote was a vote against enlargement, he said a positive agenda must be engaged to redesign European institutions to respond to the legitimate concerns of Irish people.
Reflecting on the benefits of EU membership, he said EU transfers had helped the "modernisation of the economy". Ireland had received €32 billion in agricultural and food supports, €5 billion for training and education and €12 billion for infrastructural projects.
On the transformation of the economy, he said agri-food exports were now 20 times the value of those in 1972, yet they represented less than 10 per cent or our exports, compared with almost 50 per cent on accession to the EEC.
There had also been social benefits in areas such as equality legislation, the environment and consumer protection.
Overall, though, the biggest advantages from membership had been in psychological terms.
Irish people had "a greater confidence to face the outside world, knowing that we are part of a bigger, supportive entity" and were "not being focused merely within the confines of an island mentality".
The secretary-general of the EU Commission, Mr David O'Sullivan, told the school there was one major positive impact stemming from the rejection of the Nice Treaty last year.
"The positive thing to come out of the last referendum has been much more popular consciousness about the European issue," Mr O'Sullivan said.
"People did not think enough about what we get from Europe, what we want from Europe and how we want to contribute to Europe."
On Wednesday, Labour MEP Mr Proinsias De Rossa said while passing the treaty was necessary for early EU enlargement, the real debate would be at the Convention on the Future of Europe where Irish participation would be vital. "For the first time ever, elected parliamentarians of the existing member-states - MEPs and MPs - and government representatives are directly involved in preparing the reform of the Union," he said.