The 21st century will be “a race between integration and irrelevance,” the European Union’s ambassador to the United States has said.
David O’Sullivan, who was previously the most high-ranking EU civil servant, acknowledged the bloc found itself facing “an existential crisis” but said its achievements were too often taken for granted and ought to be more strongly defended.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the College Historical Society, or Hist, at Trinity College Dublin yesterday, Mr O’Sullivan acknowledged that many EU citizens felt they were not benefiting from membership. The EU should be willing to talk openly about whether there could be “a better Europe, or a different Europe”, but he objected to the EU being an easy scapegoat for policies that were controlled by member states.
Critics
He took issue with critics who called the EU anti-democratic and exaggerated the power of its civil servants. “I would love to think I have taken decisions that have affected your lives. It ain’t true,” he said, emphasising the central role of the European Council, which is composed of member states.
Mr O’Sullivan pointed out that the EU was by far the largest donor of development and humanitarian aid in the world and had offered a “beacon” to states emerging from totalitarianism in southern and eastern Europe.
“Joining the EU opened the windows and doors of this society far beyond the economic benefits,” he said. “We take too much for granted. We have lived through 60 of the most remarkable years in Europe.”
EU membership had opened Ireland and other states to new ideas and developments, yet had done so while respecting the wealth and diversity of its component parts. It had also magnified Ireland’s influence. “The fact that Ireland is an EU member only enhances people’s interest in Ireland,” he said.
Mr O’Sullivan outlined some of the biggest challenges facing the world, from climate change and population growth to terrorism and crises in the Middle East.
“Does anybody seriously believe that any EU state can do this on their own,” he told the audience. The 21st century, he added, would be “a race between integration and irrelevance,” he said.
Mr O’Sullivan recalled campaigning for Ireland to join the then European Economic Community in the early 1970s, seeing membership as a way for Ireland to break out of the “suffocating” bilateral relationship with the United Kingdom. He argued that the Belfast Agreement could not have been concluded were Ireland and the UK not in the EU.
