14 Nov 2013, 16:59
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs this afternoon engaged with Minister for European Affairs Paschal Donohoe TD on a range of issues including the nature of future economic surveillance at EU level, enlargement and the issue of subsidiarity.
14 November 2013
Minister Donohoe's presence allowed Committee Members to question him in advance of the upcoming meeting of the General Affairs Council (GAC), to be held in Brussels next week.
Following the meeting, Chairman of the Committee Dominic Hannigan TD said: “We thank Minister Donohoe for a thorough summary of his priorities in advance of the key monthly GAC meeting, and a wider overview of Ireland’s approach to a number of key issues at EU level. The European Semester process, which will have increasing relevance as Ireland exits its bailout, was discussed. The potential for a greater use of social indicators to be used in economic surveillance of Member States was explored.”
“The meeting covered the latest state of play on EU enlargement. Minister Donohoe reported that the progress made on Turkish accession during Ireland’s EU Presidency has been reinforced by last month's opening of Chapter 22 in the long-running accession process. The accession of Member States in the Balkans was raised, with the Members welcoming a recent impetus in Albania’s moves towards candidate status.
“Minister Donohoe also flagged the upcoming review the subsidiarity principle by the Dutch Government, which may have relevance for Ireland and our parliamentary system. Member States and the European Council have been increasingly concerned with ensuring EU regulation is proportionate and sensible. This dovetails with the European Commission position, outlined to our Committee earlier this week by Barbara Nolan, head of the Commission's Dublin office. She relayed President Barroso's message in his so-called State of the Union speech, in which he said that the EU needed to be ‘big on big things and small on smaller things’.”
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Committee Membership
Deputies: Eric Byrne, Seán Crowe, Timmy Dooley, Bernard J. Durkan, John Halligan, Dominic Hannigan (Chair), Seán Kyne, Dara Murphy (Vice-Chair) and Joe O’Reilly
Senators: Colm Burke, John Kelly, Terry Leyden, Catherine Noone and Kathryn Reilly