Labour was usually in Government in coalition with Fine The Future of EuropeEurope:: Perspectives Gael. from Ireland Ireland has been independent from the United Kingdom since 1922 and a Republic since 1949. Ireland was in a currency union with the UK until 1979. For a period of 30 years from 1969 until 1998 there was instability in Is there room for a European Northern Ireland which successive Irish Governments dream in a country captivated in worked to resolve and contain. EU entry in 1972 was the structures of IMF -EU backed by both centre right parties and opposed by adjustment programmes? Is more Labour, which however soon became converted to the European integration desired and European project. Sinn Fein and the small socialist feasible at all? parties are anti - Globalisation and anti EU. The Irish Greens formerly had an influential Eurosceptic wing which is decreasing and many young greens are pro EU. These were among the key questions addressed Most Unions and business organisations are Pro EU. during a seminar on the future of Europe, organised by Green European Foundation with the support of Impact of the financial and economic crisis on the Heinrich Boll Foundation and Green Foundation Ireland Ireland on November 17th in Dublin. This article is a synopsis of the seminar, written by Nuala Ahern, Ireland had a booming economy and massive growth in Chair of the Green Foundation Ireland and former the 1990’s.This turned into a housing bubble, fuelled by Green MEP. low Eurozone interest rates and a global market saturated with liquidity. A comprehensive analysis of how the Irish economy collapsed is contained in the Nyberg Report , an independent report by a Norwegian The seminar took place in Tailors’ Hall, the headquarters economist. of An Taisce, the Irish National Trust. It was attended by 74 participants. Many were Greens, some were NGO’s Nyberg states that the Irish economy collapsed because and others individual citizens. of the reckless speculation in property (housing inflated by approx. 500% in the Greater Dublin region between Speakers were from Ireland, Nuala Ahern, Eamonn Ryan, 1996 and 2006. It has fallen back by 50% since the peak). Dan O’Brien and Paul Sweeney; the UK, Jill Evans MEP, Vinay Gupta and Elizabeth Meehan; Belgium, Benoit The crisis unfolded in the week following the collapse of Lechat; and Germany, Ambassador to Ireland Eckhard Lehman Brothers in the United States in September 2008 Lubkemeier and Financial Journalist Nicola Liebert. when the Irish Government was informed of a severe liquidity problem with Anglo Irish Bank. It was made The seminar addressed the Future of Europe not only clear by the ECB and EU Finance Ministers that no bank from the point of view of Ireland but also from that of should be allowed to fail because of the risk of Great Britain, her closest EU neighbour. contamination in the Eurozone. The Fianna Fail/ Green Coalition Government therefore introduced a Bank Ireland: General Political Background Guarantee by way of emergency legislation. The majority of the parties supported the state guarantee in a parliamentary vote which effectively socialised private Irish Political Parties: Fianna Fail (ALDE); Fine Gael sector bank debt. (Christian Democrats); Labour Party (Socialist Group); some small left parties - Sinn Fein (GUE); and the Subsequent refusal by the ECB to allow private Greens. Currently in government: Fine Gael and Labour. bondholders to take the hit for their investments in Irish banks has led to the belief that the ECB has pandered to Irish Governments have been dominated by two centre vested interests while forcing the common people to pay right parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. Historically for debts which they did not incur. As a result there was a Fianna Fail is to the left of Fine Gael and to the right of sharp rise in anti EU sentiment. the Labour party, though this is fairly meaningless as The Future of Europe: Perspectives from Ireland 2 A low public debt in the 1990’s turned into a massive public space. The Green European Journal and GEF exist deficit after the crash as during the boom the inflow of to create a Green public space for progressive ideas. funds was used to expand the public service, and award large pay increases at its higher levels. State spending, We need also to meet face to face to create real debate. 44 billion in 2002, rose to about 64 billion in 2006. At We need an answer to the rising sense of injustice more than 8% in 2012 Ireland continues to run the between the generations. We need to rebuild a social largest budget deficit among the 27 member states. Europe with a concrete content. We need interpersonal solidarity for example a European Citizens basic income, The economy rapidly contracted after 2008 and the so that we know we belong to the same society. private sector cut jobs and salaries acutely. In the public sector, agreements maintained wages on the promise of Dr. Elizabeth Meehan (Queen’s University Belfast) efficiencies. The social fabric held as the public sector argued that the public space in Europe is fractured and was sheltered from the worst of the recession, but divisive as a result of the crisis. Europeans need to unemployment rose to 15%. The traditional safety valve properly comprehend how they are interlinked and of large emigration of the educated young was added to interdependent. But the crisis has brought an by emigration of the older workforce in collapsed sectors overwhelming’ reversal back to the national interest as such as construction. our reference for understanding the crises. Moreover we seem to link economic performance to the general moral In late 2010 a bailout deal was agreed with the Troika, to character of entire political communities’ – the stuff of reduce the deficit, which was running at 20 billion per the North -South fracture. year. Since August 2008 Irish citizens have had a bigger austerity than any developed economy (even more than We use the language of divisiveness; member states Greece) according to the OECD. 24 billion euro in cuts build ‘firewalls’ to prevent ‘contagion’ and suggest that and new taxes have been introduced since the crisis dysfunctional economies are ‘riddled with disease’ and began, and more than 8 billion of cuts are scheduled in ‘ready to poison the lifeblood of healthy economies. The 2013-15 - a total of more than 32 billion. Irish taxpayers caricaturing of European leaders is an attempt at a deeply resent repaying the creditors of the banks which populist understanding of how Europe is governed, but were socialised, an impossible task for just fewer than we need to go beyond caricature and create an intelligent two million working population. public space in Europe. Key issues discussediscussedddd Ireland, the UK and the EU; the English European democracy and the European public speaking European world sphere According to Jill Evans MEP the most severe calling into question of the legitimacy of the EU is within the UK, The Future of Europe seminar opened with a call from where for the first time the possibility of an exit from the GFI Chair Nuala Ahern to address the crisis urgently and EU is seriously considered possibility. A UK exit from the comprehensively; if the crisis is not resolved the EU would impact negatively on the UK, particularly in legitimacy of the EU, already being called into question, Scotland and Wales, which are much more pro EU than is may suffer a dangerous collapse in public support. England. EU budget cuts, which the UK Government is Legitimate governance in Europe must be intelligible to currently pushing in the EU budgetary framework 2014- its citizens and have clearly defined structures that 2020, would also disproportionately affect Wales and people can understand, consent to and interact with. Scotland. However, in spite of a worse banking collapse Such is scarcely the case at present. than other EU states, the fact that their own currency and the Bank of England have contained the crisis has According to Benoit Lechat, editor in chief of the Green convinced many in the UK of the benefits of remaining European Journal , the lack of a really legitimising outside the Eurozone. European democracy is also an economic problem. Where for example organise debate on the causes of the Vinay Gupta (UCL Institute for Security and Resilience crisis? A new convention to promote reform and Studies) said that the young people of the UK would not democratisation in the EU was his suggestion. No give up the freedoms that European citizenship had progress on the democratic level can happen without a brought them and which would be threatened by a UK The Future of Europe: Perspectives from Ireland 3 exit. The elite vision of European integration had been However people are against debt relief as they see that replaced with the actual experience of the young that as spending their hard earned money on profligate Europe is their country. The European generation is at southern Europeans and their public debt. It is not home all over Europe for working and living and they will understood that hardly any German money has actually react savagely if national elites now try to take this from been paid out: 7.5 billion euro in direct loans and 10 them. billion EFSF guarantees. Nor is it realised that if any country drops out of the Eurozone that this would mean The financial crisis is also a crisis of authority and can higher losses due to non-payment of debt. become an intergenerational rift. Generation Europe is not content to allow the EU make decisions without being An alternative solution would mean: accountable for them.