Oh, it’s Europe’s fault! This is the normal response, not just in Ireland, but across much of Europe to a new regulation but if new money flows or a problem is solved then it is a national or local politician who springs up to take the credit.

What has been so striking about the UK Brexit debacle is how the EU has been vilified and blamed for all of Britain’s ills but it is only in dribs and drabs that the major beneficiaries of the UK involvement in the EU project slowly make their voices heard. But there is and has been no cohesive European voice proclaiming the enormous benefits that the move towards greater European cohesion has brought.

In Ireland, because the progress since EU membership in 1973 has been so spectacular, there is still a sizeable majority who can see where we would be without European membership – with or without the UK, but this is not because of any real effort on behalf of the European Union to present a coherent message of the benefits of a common approach based on shared action, shared responsibility and accountability.

Vague, intemperate accusations of a “democratic deficit” in the EU institutions broadly go unanswered unless some domestic politician sets the record straight. The fact that the Commission, like a domestic civil service, proposes and administers policies is seldom forcibly made. Nor is the point that regulations are made and passed by people elected from each member state, including Ireland.

We hear of our 'sovereignty being trampled on' when in fact, for example, it is clearly desirable that there be some centralised budgetary oversight to control the wilder spending inclinations of many national politicians

Instead, we hear of our “sovereignty being trampled on” when in fact, for example, it is clearly desirable that there be some centralised budgetary oversight to control the wilder spending inclinations of many national politicians.

Leaving aside the major achievement of having had peace in Europe for one of the longest periods on record, we can so easily overlook the achievements in the development of infrastructures across the less prosperous member states of whom Ireland was one. The huge benefit of common standards in food, air travel, goods and many services allowing free movement and unimpeded trade. Of a block that comprises about 7% of the world’s population but has about 40% of the world’s combined social welfare payments.

The EU initiatives on mobile phone charges, scientific research, competition, agriculture, food quality, youth exchanges, human rights and third-world aid all take place underneath the radar. Certainly, the information is available to the serious student but for the general run of the population pursuing their busy lives, Europe and all it stands for exists for too many in a vacuum removed from any perceptible influence on daily lives except by unwelcome intrusion. It is European politicians across the member states and senior participants who should take the initiative in having a real programme that informs its citizens – otherwise there is a risk of disintegration, not large yet, but increasingly spoken of as a possibility. We have too much to lose from such an outcome.

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