25 March 2017
EU anniversary summit – ‘Time for open, critical debate’ says MEP Lynn Boylan
There is an ‘unrelenting push for the militarisation of Europe at all levels’
AS leaders of 27 European Union states meet in the Italian capital to celebrate 60 years since the Treaty of Rome was signed, Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan has called for open civic debate about the successes and failures of the European Union.
Britain is absent from the summit because of its pending “Brexit” withdrawal from the EU. British Prime Minister Theresa May plans to launch the Brexit process on Wednesday despite opposition in Ireland and from Scotland.
Sinn Féin and other critics are fearful that Brexit will result in the return of a “hard border”, controls and tariffs that will affect Irish consumers and producers across all of Ireland, North and South.
Sinn Féin is campaigning for Special Designated Status within the EU for the Six Counties, which voted against Brexit, as is Scotland.
Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan said that this weekend’s Treaty of Rome 60th anniversary offers people as well as leaders in all EU member states “the perfect opportunity to engage in wide-ranging civic debate on what the EU means to them, what they see as its successes and failures, and the future direction of the EU”.
She said that while there have been successes, there have been failures too:
“We cannot celebrate prosperity and advancement without criticising the inequality and poverty that have been created through the EU austerity agenda, neo-liberal policies and extreme free-market approach to trade, or the unrelenting push for the militarisation of Europe at all levels – from co-ordinated security and defence policy through to an EU army.”
She was critical of “all the backslapping of EU leaders and Commissioners” and said:
“Now is not a time for navel gazing. It is a time for open, critical civic debate about the EU.”
