Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-05
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit chuig an díospóireacht an-tábhachtach seo. This is a very important discussion for Ireland's upcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which is coming at a critical point for the European Union. It is an opportunity for Ireland to promote and reaffirm both the founding spirit and the core values of the European Union that its citizens hold dear. I am worried we have lost focus on them in recent years.
The EU came into being following the horrors of the Second World War and following the centuries before that of division within Europe and of colonialism across the world by many European countries. It seemed to be a new point where we were looking at the idea of those core values and principles. It came at the same time as the formation of the United Nations. I welcome the Minister of State's reference in his speech to the importance of the international legal order, with the UN at its centre. Sadly, we are seeing a turn away from international law by some of our colleagues across Europe. There has been a move away from international law and that diplomacy - people have praised Ireland on its record of participating in that diplomacy - towards a "might is right" version of diplomacy, where Europe is standing idly by as war crimes are committed and wars are started from fear of economic impact, opportunism or a sense of powerlessness.
After the illegal strikes on Iran by Israel and the United States, the most recent of many such illegal actions, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated:
International legal assessments will have relatively little effect. This is all the more true if they remain largely without consequence...therefore, now is not the time to lecture our partners and allies.
The last time Israel bombed Iran, we had Ursula von der Leyen reaffirming a commitment to Israel's right to defend itself, even though Israel had initiated the bombing. We had other leaders in Europe talking about Israel doing Europe's dirty work for it. We need to be very clear. There is this line that the UN has failed, which was said by someone here yesterday. The fact of the United Nations and international law being asserted but having no consequence is a choice our colleagues in Europe are actively making.
They are refusing to implement, for example, International Court of Justice rulings that are crystal clear. Germany and some other countries are blocking action that reflects not just international law but also European law, including in the context of the suspension of EU-Israel trade agreement.
We need to make a stand against the flagrant dismissal of the upholding of international law forged after centuries of misery. We have see genocides committed. We need to make a stand in this regard and remind our European colleagues that it is not optional to fail to apply something to one's allies but to apply it to others. This has been noticed internationally. The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft has noted the growing perception that much of Europe has completely abandoned international law. It holds out Ireland, Spain and Norway as countries that still seem to be interested, which is positive. It stated that this will backfire immensely on Europe and will damage us. This is at a time when we correctly want to call for the application of international law in respect of Ukraine. I urge the Minister that this be the centrepiece and that we talk about international law and reroute ourselves towards that historical context. I ask that we not do this within a framework of values and friendly allies and that we speak about it only in the context of Ukraine and park the difficult conversation. I ask that the occupied territories Bill, for example, be made law during our Presidency and that we set the example we should already have set. Spain has jumped ahead of us and has started that ball rolling. We urged other countries to take action, but we did not. What does it say if we contribute to a backslide in relation to international law rather than championing it?
As well as the disregard for international law, we have seen military expenditure being ramped up. Hundreds of billions of euro have been provided in loans to states that wish to spend money on weapons, including cluster bombs. Some €16 billion has been provided in loans to allow countries like Hungary, which is sinking deeper into authoritarianism, to buy weapons. The dangers of this need to be evaluated, in particular when the money involved is being routed away from things like regional development, a just transition, action on the climate crisis, which, we know, is real and is already affecting us and others across the world, and social cohesion, which was crucial to our peace process. I was disappointed that the Minister of State only mentioned peace once, which was in the context of enlargement. In the section on security and defence, there was no reference to the word "peace". I sit on five committees. At least three of them have written to the Minister of State to say that they want peace to be a strong theme of the Presidency. The Oireachtas has chosen that.
Let us have peace reflected during our the Presidency. Ireland has a good story. The contribution the EU made to peace in Ireland was crucial. The European Convention on Human Rights was a foundational legal underpinning of our peace and an example of international law that should be championed and supported.
Ireland should use the opportunity presented by the Presidency to share the learning from the peace process, rooted in international law and underpinned by resources for peace not just for war and military expenditure. There should be a refocusing on the EU and its origin as a project for peace. We should stop a drift towards what is increasingly looking like a soulless economic bloc that cares little for who lives or dies and that sustains a very narrow version of economic growth. That is not what any of us wish for Europe. It is not what the citizens of Europe wish for.
I was incredibly honoured to be part of the future of Europe process and to be involved with 800 citizens and hundreds of parliamentarians from across Europe in that. They spoke to me and each other about how proud they were of the fact that Europe invested in society, raised standards and did the work on the environment and equality. The Minister of State referenced the important provisions on equality and the environment. That is what creates pride in Europe, not just here in Ireland but across the Union. Yet, in the multi-annual financial framework, which will be negotiated during this term, we have seen a worrying slide away from expenditure in these crucial areas towards a focus on very excessive military expenditure. We are also seeing the competitiveness agenda, as it is framed, in a very narrow way. There is space for competitiveness, but some of it is actually deregulation. We seem to have learned from austerity that if we cut back on the social investment, that matters.
I already referred to climate measures. The LIFE fund has been mentioned as being crucial. Social cohesion is important. These are the things that underpin public confidence and pride in the European Union. Regarding the competitiveness agenda, we have heard a lot about digital regulation. We know that the direction the omnibus legislation is going in is towards deregulation. Please let Ireland take a stand on environmental deregulation and, crucially, digital deregulation. There are proposals to dilute data protection rights in order to allow AI algorithms to be trained in respect of personal data. The competitive advantage that Europe has is its standards, rights and respect for the rule of law. Please let us champion those during this period.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05