President Michael D. Higgins launched the new UCD Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in the New Political Economy of Europe.
The role of the Centre is to promote understanding of the new political and economic realities of the European Union, and to widely disseminate the fruits of research to a wider audience.
To read the President's speech, click on the tabs above.
At the launch President Higgins added to a series of speeches on the future of the European Union. In those speeches, the President has suggested that the EU’s founding principles represent “the triumph of idealism over cynicism” and that such principles merit active defence at a time that they are threatened by “increasing inequalities in income, wealth, power and opportunities.”
The President has stated that a wide and comprehensive debate is needed and that the Union’s smaller states must make their voices heard and take a leading role in deciding the future of the Union.
Some of the President’s recent speeches on this topic are:
- ‘Solidarity in Europe; Achieving Authenticity in the European Street’ – Speech to the European University Institute (May 2018)
- “Giving the European Union a Future that will Engage Citizens - A Shared Challenge” (January 2018)
- Speech by President Higgins at the Diplomatic Corps 2018 New Year’s Greeting Ceremony (January 2018)
- Speech at a Reception for the European Association of Former Members of Parliament (June 2017)
- Speech at the Diplomatic Corps 2017 New Year’s Greeting Ceremony (January 2017)
- “Creating a New Moment for the European Union: Problems and Prospects” - Address to the Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies. (April 2016)
- “The European Union - Towards a Discourse of Reconnection, Renewal and Hope” (September 2015)
- ‘Towards a European Union of the Citizens’ - Address to the European Parliament (April 2013)
