Address to Seanad Éireann by Members of the European Parliament Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-27 ============================================================ Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland It is a crucial time for Europe. We are seeing not just worrying decisions about Europe's future but also much of Europe's past being eroded at present. I took part in the Future of Europe process; I was one of the four parliamentarians from Ireland. When I spoke to the 800 citizens from across Europe, they spoke about European values. In a real sense, when they talked about them they meant the fundamental rights and the increase in environmental standards, employment standards and equality standards. That is what they were proud of. However, we have heard more and more of a conversation from the institutions since then about power; one that was very much shifting away from those values. I am very worried about the omnibus legislation we are seeing across a range of areas which, as far as I can see, is setting fire to many of the best things about Europe. I would love the MEPs' comments on this. People do not expect it but we are seeing the roll-back in environmental areas and on corporate accountability. I engaged with, as I am sure did many of the MEPs, the corporate due diligence legislation. It took years to negotiate but was undone in an omnibus packet very quickly. There is a concern that the digital omnibus will undermine GDPR rights, as well as concerns regarding the environmental area. I believe there are six or seven or eight more omnibuses due, which is very worrying. I would love the MEPs' comments on that as a general approach and what specific actions they are taking within the system in challenging how that is being done. I am concerned about the multi-annual financial framework. We are now seeing a huge shift away from social cohesion and environmental funding, which are important. We know in Ireland that social cohesion funding means actually building peace. There has been a re-routing of that into defence, with one of the clear examples being things like the lack of dedicated funding for nature restoration and the Natura programmes and LIFE programme, which all benefit many farms within the regions the MEPs represent. Those small subsidies have been very important, as they are what makes nature restoration happen. However, they have now been lumped into a competitiveness fund, where they are up against drones and everything else. Are the MEPs championing and pushing for dedicated funding in this area, and for this to be ring-fenced? At present, and in general within the budget, how do we ensure we do not see a routing of everything towards defence without safeguards? For example, our finance committee put forward a very strong report on this, which showed that much of the money going into arms, including into the underwriting of loans, could be used for cluster bombs. There is an area or gap regarding defence and oversight - and we know it is not even covered by the AI Act - that relates to military technologies and defence. That is an area we need to tackle collectively and, of course, it has come to the forefront when we look at what has been happening. I would like to touch on two key trade areas I think are very important. One is the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. There are direct actions Ireland could be taking like the proper passing of the occupied territories Bill - that is clear - as well as action regarding the facilitation of Israeli bonds, arms and so forth. However, at that EU level, I was very disappointed to see a vote against a debate on the new death penalty; a death penalty which treats Palestinians differently, literally in a life and death way. A debate on that was blocked. I am also concerned about the EU-Morocco deal, where we see a replication of some very poor decision-making and a measure which, again, could end up rewarding settlers in illegally occupied territories, rather than citizens. It is replicating some of the terrible mistakes that have been made regarding Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories. There are crucial decisions being made at this time, and I would like to know what MEPs are doing to unpack those pieces, and not just the sloganeering on simplification, when we know it is deregulation. There may be measures of simplification but we need to hear the unpacking of that and competitiveness, when the comparative advantage Europe had was its standards and the opportunity for industries to respond to the real world, where climate change is real, where there is diversity and where society matters. I would love if the MEPs could unpack what the learning should be, even from austerity, when we come back on the competitiveness. We lost a decade to austerity and that is where the competitiveness was lost. --- 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/2026-05-27/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:00+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-27