For a Frenchman, to know Ireland is to love it. As a child, to me it had the unsettling charm of the indomitable Maureen O’Hara in “The Quiet Man”. As a student, I learned about the ‘fighting spirit’ on rugby fields with the Irish teams and my bedroom was decorated with some photos of John and Bob Kennedy. As a father, I named my eldest son Patrick: March 17th has become our family’s celebration day.
By chance, I first became involved in European matters when Ireland joined the Community: I will never know if the European adventure was worth it before, but to me it has always come with the sound of an Irish ballad.
Has Ireland gained from its EU membership? Only you can answer. Seen from the continent, Europe’s former poorest country is now wealthier than the UK, France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries, per capita. No longer does Ireland see its sons and daughters leave, it attracts its neighbours’ sons and daughters. It has made the most of the common agricultural policy, of the European regional fund, and of its membership to the euro while the British remained attached to their insular currency. The European family has accompanied and assisted each step of the long-lasting course of the peace process in Northern Ireland. Lastly, everyone knows, in Ireland and elsewhere, why the worldwide financial crisis did not have the same apocalyptic consequences in Dublin as it did in Reykjavik.
Lire la suite…
Pour
accéder aux travaux de la session plénière du 20 au 23 octobre 2008 à
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nLe 21 octobre, Nicolas Sarkozy est intervenu en séance plénière. Vous
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A cette occasion, Alain Lamassoure a publié un
communiqué de
presse
.
