Committee on European Affairs marks Europe Week

The Joint Committee on European Affairs will host a special meeting tomorrow 10 May on the likely shape of the European Union in twenty years’ time.

The meeting forms part of a series of meetings taking place in the Dáil and Seanad chambers and across a number of Oireachtas Committees to mark Europe Week.

The Joint Committee on European Affairs will host a special meeting tomorrow 10 May on the likely shape of the European Union in twenty years’ time. The meeting forms part of a series of meetings taking place in the Dáil and Seanad chambers and across a number of Oireachtas Committees to mark Europe Week.

Europe Day is held today and every 9 May as an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe. Tomorrow, the European Union Affairs Committee will meet with Brendan Halligan, Chairman of the Irish Institute of International and European Affairs.

Chairman of the Committee Dominic Hannigan TD says: “Amid the current period of economic and financial uncertainty, Europe Day is an opportunity to reflect on how a continent ravaged by the Second World War overcame the divisions of the past and thrived by working together.

“On the 9th of May 1950, Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organised Europe. Known as the ‘Schuman declaration’, the proposal is considered to be the genesis of what is now the European Union – initially pooling coal and steel production between six Member States. In the 62 years, the European Union has grown in diversity to encompass 27 countries –with each phase of enlargement further advancing stability and prosperity for acceding Member States.

“Tomorrow’s meeting with Mr Halligan affords our Committee an opportunity to explore how the European Union can adapt to an ever more dynamic global system and deal with the rise of emerging Asian powers in particular. Our discussion tomorrow provides an opportunity to reflect on how the European values of democracy, stability, security and prosperity can be sustained.”

The meeting tomorrow takes place in Committee Room 3, LH 2000 at 2:30 p.m. Committee proceedings can be viewed online via this link: http://bit.ly/24YmPI

Follow the EU Affairs Committee Facebook page for updates on its work.

ENDS

For further information please contact:   
Paul Hand,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
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Dublin 2
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Committee Membership
Deputies
Dominic Hannigan, TD (Chairman)
Paschal Donohoe, TD (Vice-Chairman)
Timmy Dooley, TD
Bernard J Durkan, TD
Colm Keaveney, TD
Seán Kyne, TD
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, TD
Joe O’Reilly, TD
Mick Wallace, TD
Senators
Colm Burke,
Fidelma Healy Eames,
James Heffernan,
Terry Leyden,
Kathryn Reilly