The Irish Prime Minister, Micheál Martin, announced, on Tuesday 7 July, that his country would create an annual prize in honour of John Hume, a former MEP and a key architect of the reconciliation in Northern Ireland, which led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, in order to honour “a European who has contributed to the values which John advocated for and to the further development of our (European) Union”.
“The only MEP to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while serving in the Parliament”, Mr Hume was “a passionate advocate for peace and prosperity through a shared European future”, Mr Martin recalled.
Presenting the priorities of the Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union at a plenary sitting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Taoiseach said that his country would spare no effort to promote “the democratic and humanitarian ideals of Europe”.
The Prime Minister recalled the three driving priorities of the Irish Presidency: competitiveness, European values and security (see EUROPE 13884/26).
On competitiveness, Ireland will rely on the interinstitutional ‘roadmap’ aimed at deepening the single market (see EUROPE 13856/4). We will steer the work leading to the climate and digital transitions, we will simplify life for businesses, notably through progressing the “‘EU Inc.’ proposal”, and we will try to take “a decisive step forward” in making the Savings and Investments Union a reality, an area in which “progress has been far too slow”, Mr Martin said.
Ireland is, however, relatively reluctant about the establishment of supervision of financial players at European level.
On European values, Ireland intends to defend the rule of law and fundamental rights both in the EU and worldwide. It will support the political forces in candidate countries that want to embrace these values and live “under our umbrella of prosperity and security”. Thus, the Taoiseach recalled the objective set is to finalise negotiations with Montenegro and make “historic progress” with Moldova and Ukraine (see EUROPE 133903/10).
Gaza. Still on the subject of EU values, Micheál Martin returned to the “dire” humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the deterioration of the situation in the West Bank.
“The behaviour of the Netanyahu government is increasingly extreme. There are no democratic or humanitarian values which are flexible enough to justify the scale of death, destruction and displacement we have seen”, he stressed, noting “the sadness and anger” felt by many Europeans because “Europe has not done enough to put pressure on Israel”. He did say that he respected the difficulties many countries have in changing long-established policies towards Israel, “but we simply must do more”, he said.
On security, the Irish Presidency will continue political, financial and military support for Ukraine, while increasing pressure on Russia so that it engages in peace negotiations. And it will take forward work on the European Security Strategy as soon as the European Commission has proposed it.
Finally, regarding the post-2027 EU budget, the Irish Prime Minister called for a 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework that can match the EU’s ambitions (see EUROPE 13901/1). “One of our Union’s greatest weaknesses is that we place such high demands on it but are unwilling to fund it appropriately”, he noted.
Ireland will present a second quantified negotiating framework (‘negotiating box’) with a view to the European summit in October, before the European Council President, António Costa, takes over. The objective being to reach a unanimous agreement among Member States by the end of 2026.
See Micheál Martin’s speech: https://aeur.eu/f/mqz (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)