On Wednesday 17 January in Strasbourg, the Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, inaugurated a number of debates on the future of the EU. His country is directly concerned by this theme due to Brexit. During almost an hour and a half, the young 39-year-old leader explained to MEPs his vision of the EU and he covered a number of subjects as diverse as the European budget, the accession of the Balkan countries to the EU, defence questions and Irish taxation (currently being scrutinised by a number of MEPs), as well as the issue of the Commission.
According to the Irish leader it will be the Croatian and Portuguese leaders that will take over from one another at the Parliament who should be discussing the future of the EU. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, will be making a speech on this issue in April (see other article).
On Wednesday, Varadkar’s views were eagerly awaited regarding Brexit and first of all he thanked the European Parliament and Commission for the unconditional support they have given Dublin in the negotiations with London. In December, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, provided substantial support to the Prime Minister by explaining that the overall agreement on the United Kingdom's withdrawal would depend on approval being granted by Ireland itself.
In his address to the MEPs, Leo Varadkar highlighted his country's red lines, namely: respect for the Good Friday agreement and no introduction of any physical borders. The leader pointed out that the majority of the inhabitants in the north of Ireland had voted for staying in the EU and wanted to remain in the customs union and that the majority of inhabitants will be able to remain European citizens (under the terms of the agreement that allows citizens in Northern Ireland to be both British and Irish), explained the Irish leader. He also said that he was in favour of as deep as possible relations with United Kingdom when the latter is ready but in the conditions that have been set out, namely those that respect the integrity of the single market.
With a hint of humour, the Irish Prime Minister also denied being involved in the conspiracy to encourage the British to organise a second referendum on staying in the EU, as certain Brexit supporters have claimed. Leo Varadkar certainly had regrets over Brexit but considers that this decision will be up to the British people alone and that external governments have no role in advising London about this question.
Maintaining key budgets
On the question of the European budget, the Irish leader received a particularly warm response when he indicated that he was ready to increase his country’s participation if this helped to deepen the European project. On this subject Leo Varadkar called for the CAP and cohesion policy budgets to be maintained, as well as those for research and innovation.
On the issue of democracy, the young leader also called for more energy and visibility and offered his support for the proposal to set up a European electoral district. He also gave his support to the system for selecting candidates to the Presidency of the European Commission, the well-known Spitzenkandidaten system (see other article).
Member states “hypocritical" about taxation
With regard to the question of taxation, Leo Varadkar said that it was necessary to tackle companies that fail to pay taxes but on subjects such as the taxation of the major players in the digital arena, he repeated his wish for an international solution to be provided under the framework of the OECD. He explained that this would be best way of not giving third countries any advantages, such as the United Kingdom, when it leaves the EU.
The Prime Minister also again referred to the disagreement he had with Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on the Apple case, which involves Dublin having to go the European Court of Justice. Leo Varadkar denied that there had been an agreement with the US company that allowed the latter to pay less tax.
At a more general level, Leo Varadkar attacked the "hypocrisy" of the member states on the question of corporation tax; because countries such as Bulgaria and Romania had lower levels of taxation than Ireland. The Irish leader was particularly critical of France, which ultimately has a system that is full of derogations for companies and which as proved to be more flexible than Ireland in this area but with less of a tax burden. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)