Barry Andrews: No time for charade on Europe-wide public health

The Government has already adopted a curious position on the Conference on the Future of Europe which is due to start work in earnest on May 9th.

Alongside 11 other member states, it has effectively decided to pre-emptively oppose any major changes that might be proposed by what is intended to be a citizen-led, bottom-up exercise in participatory democracy. Imagine if, ahead of the Citizens’ Assembly on abortion or on marriage equality, the Government indicated that it was implacably opposed to anything that might lead to substantial change.

Imagine if the following sentence accompanied the start of a Citizens’ Assembly: “It should not create legal obligations, nor should it duplicate or unduly interfere with the established legislative processes.”

You might be justified in being discouraged from participating and to ask what the point of the entire process is.

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Nevertheless, the Government has decided to embark on a “consultation” with citizens in Ireland with a series of public meetings and citizens’ dialogues, both virtual and physical.

The conference is due to report in spring next year. There will be a Citizens’ Convention ahead of that which may meet three or four times to settle on key issues. The Irish delegation will participate with one hand tied behind its back.

It is all the more surprising given that Ireland has been a pioneer in the area of participatory democracy, with citizens’ assemblies helping to settle extremely contested public policy areas especially on the abortion issue. As former UK prime minister Gordon Brown noted, “[the Citizens’ Assembly] found common ground between devout faith and resolute feminism in an outcome that astonished the world”.

The EMI poll published recently on Irish attitudes to various current legal obligations is worth thinking about.

Merkel has said the EU needs more competencies in health policy and that this will 'probably' require treaty change

A majority of people polled (52 per cent) hold the view that now is the time to reform the EU even if this would result in a referendum. It would be wrong to conclude that this means that 52 per cent people are in favour of increased powers for the EU but at least it should encourage the Government to be open to the possibility of emerging opinions, particularly among young people.

There was also, surprisingly, a majority for further co-operation with the EU on security and defence policy. As the late Brendan Halligan pointed out in this newspaper some years ago, “neutrality has become more a matter of theology than international politics”.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the EU needs more competencies in the area of health policy, and that this will “probably” require treaty change. In her view, the EU’s lack of co-ordination around lockdowns and restrictions indicates the need for greater EU powers in the area of public health. When an EU policy goes spectacularly well it is used as evidence that the EU should acquire more power in the area. If it goes spectacularly badly, the argument is made that the EU doesn’t have enough power to be effective.

Heads I win, tails you lose.

Pandemic recovery

Nevertheless, there is in my view a strong argument for increasing EU competence in the area of public health even if it requires treaty change and a referendum in Ireland. We can’t return to “business as usual” in the future and a broader discussion needs to take place about the global governance of the production, procurement and distribution of vaccines given the enormous gaps across the world.

On the positive side, the Government is right to point out that citizens are totally focused on specific results and on pandemic recovery. There is no appetite for or interest in the EU institutions themselves or their relative powers. The Spitzenkandidat initiative or transnational lists are subjects of fascination within the Brussels bubble but not beyond.

It is also a great signal to offer citizens in Northern Ireland the opportunity to contribute to the process. As Northern Ireland is in the single market for goods, it will always have a stake in the future of the EU.

Finally, I am hopeful that the Conference on the Future of Europe will also consider ways to unlock the full potential of the existing EU treaties. Permanent Structured Co-operation (Pesco) – which covers security and defence integration – had been described as the Sleeping Beauty of the Lisbon Treaty before finally being launched in 2017. There are other unused or underused provisions in the treaties that could be unblocked in areas such as the rule of law, foreign policy and energy policy.

The Government should enter this process with an open mind and without preconditions. To do otherwise is to treat this as nothing more than an expensive charade, rather than as a genuine, once-in-a-generation effort to reimagine the future of the European Union.

Barry Andrews is a Fianna Fáil member of the European Parliament for the Dublin constituency