SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE “IRELAND IN EUROPE - FROM COMMON MARKET TO EUROPE
SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE "IRELAND IN EUROPE - FROM COMMON MARKET TO EUROPEAN UNION”
Good evening
Professor Ioakimidis, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for the invitation to the Hellenic Centre for European Studies and for this opportunity to speak on the history of Ireland’s thirty year involvement in the great adventure in peace and prosperity through partnership that is the European Union.
The family of nations that comprise the Union embraces peoples with a huge range of very different histories and perspectives. Ireland and Greece both know what it is to be located on the periphery of the European continent but there the similarities end. We are a small island nation on the farthest northwestern Atlantic margins of the Union. Our nearest neighbour, Great Britain, is the one country in the universe with which we have had the most fraught relationship historically. Our island is divided into the independent State which I represent and Northern Ireland which remains under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom and which has experienced generations of political instability and sectarian conflict. Just to confuse you, I was born and raised in Northern Ireland!
Your beautiful country on the opposite side of Europe shares borders with former Eastern Bloc countries and Mediterranean states. We speak different languages and use different alphabets. There are differences in our traditions, our cultures, our food and our customs. Yet in spite of this our two nations, together with thirteen other disparate countries including our neighbours in Great Britain, with a combined population of 375 million citizens, have succeeded in coming together to build not only the world’s most successful trading bloc but a community where we each exercise our sovereignty for the greater good of all our people. Inside that Union are many old enemies who turned the grim pages of the twentieth century red with blood.
The founding fathers of what is now the European Union had a dream of a Europe of friendly nations whose young men and women would visit each other as tourists rather than as soldiers, who would work together as friends and partners to bring peace, stability and prosperity to each other and to themselves. Europe had taught itself enough awful lessons about the wastefulness of war. The optimists dared to believe we could reveal the fullest potential of our continent by working collegially and respectfully. We are the blessed generation whose children as EU citizens can now travel freely and easily to live, explore, study and work anywhere in the Union. The countries they visit for all their many differences are places where all European citizens feel comfortable and familiar for we each operate a considerable range of common policies, common Laws and common institutions including courts and a Parliament. This summer the thousands of Irish tourists who visit Greece will spend their euros for of course we now have a common currency. Day in and day out the web of things connecting us to each other and drawing us closer, becomes more intricate, more robust and more evident.
What has been Ireland’s role in this unique journey in partnership? We joined the then EEC just eight years before Greece. Like Greece, Ireland is one of the smaller member states, located some distance from Brussels and separated from its EU neighbours, in our case by the sea, in yours by the countries of the Western Balkans. Ireland’s economic base was predominantly agricultural when we joined the EEC. In 1973 the Irish population was growing rapidly. Emigration, which had plagued our country since the mid-nineteenth century, continued to be a serious drain on the national economy and the national psyche.
In today’s world of instant communication and easy travel it is difficult to imagine the baleful effect that Ireland’s geographic isolation both pre and post-independence had on our national psyche. The Irish people felt literally “cut off” from the rest of Europe in social, economic, cultural and linguistic terms, despite the strong historical ties. For many decades after independence, Ireland’s economic policies were protectionist and insular in orientation.
Ireland’s entry to the EEC was subject to referendum. While the vast majority of the population supported membership, there was some opposition to joining the Community. Many feared that a very small country could simply not compete economically with larger more centrally located countries, that our small voice would be lost among the bigger voices at the negotiating table in Brussels. Others feared that we would lose the very independence, which our forbears had fought so dearly to win less than sixty years earlier. And there were worries that our unique identity, our culture, language, ethos, the very things which give us our particularity as Irish people, would be overwhelmed and even obliterated in this big melting pot. You can see in these fears the not untypical and predictable wariness of a nation which had known the oppression of colonialism and which was reluctant to pool our sovereignty when it had been so hard won. Still, the overwhelming majority intuited rightly that those fears were groundless and so it has proved to be.
In socio-economic terms, membership has seen Ireland progress and develop as it never has before. After years of closed and protected markets, the country’s economy was opened up to outside competition. Membership acted as a stimulus to Ireland’s developing economic modernisation. Adapting to membership made our economy more competitive, resilient and ultimately stronger. Even in the agriculture area, while there are now fewer people engaged in this sector, membership has not only kept it alive but made Irish agri-products into world class brands.
Ireland’s socio-economic transformation was not achieved overnight, nor was it painless. The process took two decades to come to fruition and is still ongoing. The inflow of European structural funds enabled Ireland to make important progress towards closing the infrastructure gaps that existed between it and other member states. A strong focus on free, quality education over three decades, combined with a population boom in the 1960s and 1970s produced a highly skilled and motivated workforce, which could reap the full benefits of the largest single market in the world and at the same time make Ireland attractive to foreign investors. But Ireland, like Greece, had to work hard to ensure that the EMU qualification criteria were met.
The Irish government, trade unions, businesses and employers learned a great deal from their continental European colleagues. In particular we adopted the social partnership model in the late 1980’s, through which unions, employers and government working to an agreed agenda provided a stable climate for economic and social development and a climate highly attractive to inward investors. European social legislation also acted as a stimulus, improving the rights of all Irish citizens and protecting these rights across the Union, allowing all citizens, but particularly women, to participate fully in the economy.
Our membership of the European Union, together with the economic policies of successive Irish Governments and the hard work, resourcefulness and flexibility of the Irish people, have resulted in the most spectacular growth rates since the foundation of the State: Ireland has enjoyed the fastest growth in the OECD for the past six years. Employment has risen from one million in the 1980's to 1.7 million today, with a corresponding sharp drop in unemployment. As a country which is one of the largest exporters in the world on a per capita basis, embracing the open market has transformed our economy. Our standard of living has risen from 60% of the EU average in 1973 to well above average today and Ireland is likely to become a net contributor to the EU budget in the coming years. Today the generations old tide of emigration has been turned. People move to live in Ireland to pursue opportunities, rather than leaving it for lack of them. Almost thirty years after joining the EEC Ireland is a modern prosperous country within the EU. The Union has given us the strength, context and opportunity to achieve change and achieve it rapidly. What is more, we now know that our voice matters. We have heard it and we can measure its effects. We have also experienced a massive surge in confidence which expresses itself in every sphere, from the dynamic new indigenous entrepreneurs to the cultural exuberance that has infused every area of the arts. Ireland is a place changed beyond recognition. My father’s generation grew up in an Ireland which can rightly be described as a poor under-achieving third world country. Their grandchildren grow up in a country which is well on the way to revealing the fullness of its own genius and knowing its own strength for the first time in its history. Now we have to ensure that we stay on this trajectory of success.
The implementation of the Lisbon Agenda which aims to make the EU the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010 is an important development. This strategy challenges Ireland and other member states to adapt their economies to the new disciplines and realities demanded of those of us who wish to be at the cutting edge. Crucially it calls us to work together to maximise our chances individually and collectively of reaching the ambitious targets our Union has set for its peoples. The EU is now the world’s most successful and influential trading bloc. Solidarity in international economic fora has achieved what none of us, particularly a small country like Ireland, could ever have achieved alone. But every summit climbed is simply a vantage point from which to view the next summit that is open to us. Some of the beneficial things we have accomplished through membership of the Union have taken us by surprise.
Against the expectations of some, joining the EEC did not diminish our sovereignty. Instead it actually allowed us to exercise sovereignty to our advantage and made us more aware of it. It gave a considerably added scope and force to our sovereignty. It gave us a voice in the affairs of the continent disproportionate to our size. It gave us a remarkable self-assertiveness and self-confidence and as we sat at the Union table beside our former colonial masters an exciting new calibration of that difficult old relationship began to happen. As Ireland emerged from the shadow of a large and dominant neighbour to a partnership of equals, a new level of mature friendship and respect grew between ourselves and Great Britain and out of those healthier relationships the Peace Process in Northern Ireland was crafted, developed and is sustained today.
The EU has benefited smaller countries like Ireland and Greece enormously: small and medium-sized member states in the existing Union outnumber larger states by a ratio of 2:1, after the forthcoming proposed enlargement the ratio will rise to 3:1. The Union is a good home for small nations.
Not so long ago a marvellous Irishman and former colleague and friend, Pat Cox, was elected as President of the European Parliament. His selection by MEPs from all member states is reassuring evidence that factors like ability and personality can transcend wholly national interests. In January 2003 Greece will take over the Presidency of the Union and Ireland will do the same a year later. The Presidency of the Union confers on our two nations an enormous responsibility and influence in the tide of European and world affairs. It is most unlikely that either of us would ever have such opportunities outside the European Union.
The evolution of the European Union since it was founded in 1951 has been little short of phenomenal. Ireland joined in the first wave of enlargement in 1973 extending its Western boundary. Greece’s accession eight years later extended the Eastern perimeter. Subsequent enlargements took our borders from Scandinavia in the northwest, to Iberia in the southeast and Austria in the east. Each enlargement has widened the social, linguistic, geographical and historical diversity of the Union, each has deepened the reservoir from which we draw, each has drawn us ever closer and each has made the Union more successful than ever.
We are now preparing for the biggest ever enlargement and it seems likely to take place during the Irish Presidency in 2004. The new enlargement will erase the unnatural boundaries that have scarred our continent since the end of World War II, rebalancing the EU, from a group of predominantly western European states to a family of democracies from every part of the continent. This next enlargement is every bit as ambitious as the initial founding of the ECSC half a century ago. It is in fact an essential part of the completion of the great dream that lies at the heart of the Union. So many of our European brothers and sisters were cut off from their natural continental homeland by the cruelties of war, oppression and history’s fickleness. Now this generation has a marvelous, a unique chance to welcome back into the European family those who were lost to us and to begin a new, happier journey together. Opinion polls consistently show that most Irish people strongly support enlargement. The advantages are obvious.
Membership of the Union will help strengthen still young democracies, underpinning peace and stability in our region. More citizens, means a bigger market of consumers, more competition, more opportunity all driving up standards, increasing standards of living and bringing new levels of prosperity. Greater cross-border cooperation helps us to face together much more effectively the enemies we are all vulnerable to individually whether it is international terrorism, drug-trafficking, cyber crime or child pornography. Their transnational nature means they are best tackled by an integrated transnational approach and the Union provides the perfect context for such an approach.
But the changes will go beyond Europe. The first half of the twentieth century saw a continent blighted by horrific wars, poverty, misery, violence and division. This was particularly severe for smaller countries who had little say in the affairs of the continent. Western Europe has developed into a zone of peace, stability and prosperity in a turbulent world.
The EU’s focus on democracy, human rights, equality and the provision of social services for all remain unparalleled in the world and a model for other countries and regional groups. The EU demands of its own members and candidate states the highest standards in these areas and rightly so. Our continent is a striking witness to the power of democratic values allied to respectful partnership.
The Union may not be a perfect entity, but is nevertheless an outstanding success story in a continent that had been so damaged by war and mistrust. The chapter of European history we are writing will make our children proud as well as safe. Greek children will be no less Greek, Irish children will be no less Irish but they will each have the joy of sharing a European identity, a tapestry made up of many different threads, no one thread more important than the other, each and every one necessary to make the tapestry whole, to make it strong, to give it its many vibrant shades and textures, to give it its resilience, its longevity. If you have ever unpicked the threads of a worn tapestry you will see that each single thread bears the imprint, the shape of the threads around it. So it is and will be in the union. We will shape each other’s future. We will grow increasingly comfortable with each other as we grow increasingly in understanding of one another. The Irish people have already grown comfortable with the idea of being proud to be Irish and proud to be European.
We are indeed a blessed generation when an Irish President comes to Greece, to the cradle of civilisation, not as a stranger to a distant land but as a friend among friends who are together part of the greatest adventure in partnership, democracy, equality, freedom, peace and prosperity, ever undertaken in the history of humankind. And it is good to remember in this city from which those noble principles evolved that time is on our side. This journey has only begun.
I would like once again to thank you Professor Ioakimidis and everyone present this evening for your very warm and generous welcome to me.
Thank you.