Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-10-07-Speech-3-131"
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"en.20091007.17.3-131"2
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"Mr President, it has been a long debate but not very dramatic. Can you imagine if it had been ‘no’, this Chamber would be full and heaving with emotion and I suppose the fact that it was ‘yes’ and we are now very calm here in the European Union speaks volumes. Of course, I welcome the outcome of the referendum in Ireland along with my Fine Gael colleagues here in Parliament. I worked very hard to achieve that ‘yes’ and I would say that the Irish people rose above national problems and other domestic issues and looked at the European question and the Lisbon Treaty and at the past and our associations with the European Union and overwhelmingly said ‘yes’ to the European Union, and that is a fantastic result.
On the other hand, Commissioner Wallström, who very kindly came to Ireland on a number of occasions, will have picked up a strong undercurrent, which I believe exists in all Member States, of people who are disconnected from what the European Union is about. I think we are all of us to blame for that. I believe that we do not speak enough about the project, about the European Union, about solidarity, about what it really means; we speak more of what we can get or what we give and what is wrong with a directive or what is bad about a regulation. So in our politics, we need perhaps to rise above some of those issues because when you are at the referendum stage, as we were, it involves explaining to people on the streets and in shops and in schools about what Europe is, how it works, what I do, what the Commission does, and that is a great exercise. It really is a very powerful exercise to talk to people directly about the European Union. People in Ireland know it better now than they did for the last while because we have engaged so well with them.
So I would urge us all here in this House to do more of that at home in our own countries and to avoid knocking the European Union where it is not appropriate. Criticise by all means where it is needed, and to those, like Nigel Farage, who worry about the Irish being bullied, I would say: we are not easily bullied. It did not happen. It will never happen. And can I say, Commissioner, that if I am not here for the end of this debate, it is not out of any disrespect to you or to the President or to the Presidency; it is other commitments, but thank you all for your support throughout the last while."@en1
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