Paul Cullen
The process of European integration will unravel unless the continent's citizens are made to feel they belong to the EU, according to the French Minister for European Affairs.
The creation of a European citizenship is, along with enlargement, the most important European issue today, Ms Noëlle Lenoir told an audience yesterday in Dublin. Ms Lenoir visited Ireland to hold talks with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche.
She also addressed the Institute of European Affairs on the lessons to be drawn for Europe and its citizens from the Irish experience. Either Europe will be the Europe of the citizens or there will be no Europe, Ms Lenoir told the IEA. "That is because Europe will be able to fulfil its high ambitions only if it involves all citizens in its decisions."
European citizenship must be founded on universal values, as well as the principles of pluralism and cultural and linguistic diversity, she said. "Europe is a pool of national identities, of cultural and religious sensitivities, of institutional traditions, of relationships between central states and local or regional powers. European citizens, therefore, have a duty to know each other better, from which stems the chance to enrich their ways of living." For a long time, Europe remained an "abstract and far-away" ideal for ordinary people. However, the euro had changed this perception, turning Europe into a concrete reality in people's pockets.
Ms Lenoir said she had drawn several conclusions from Ireland's intense debate over Europe. Discussions should start with the "concrete worries" of the citizens and Europe should not be presented as the project of a coalition of the political and economic elite.