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Barry Andrews: Ignore the negativity. Michael McGrath’s new job is a win for Ireland

It is completely wrong to say that Ireland has retreated into its traditional role of ‘harmless humanitarian’

Michael McGrath 'will be an outstanding commissioner'. Photograph: Alan Betson
Michael McGrath 'will be an outstanding commissioner'. Photograph: Alan Betson
Barry Andrews
Wed Sept 18 2024 - 16:01

In an article on “winners and losers” in the allocation of European Commission portfolios, Politico listed Ireland as a winner. Michael McGrath’s new responsibilities place him at the front line in Europe’s existential battle against illiberal democracies. He will replace outgoing Belgian commissioner Didier Reynders who championed the cause of consumer rights and the rule of law. Reynders himself is a political heavyweight having held no fewer than four ministries, including finance and foreign affairs, as well as being deputy prime minister.

By contrast, Eoin Drea delights in catastrophising the appointment and places it in a long list of backward steps for our membership of the European Union, concluding that the appointment shows how far Ireland has fallen.

Missing from his analysis is the fact that Ireland managed to secure a Brexit deal that assuaged many of its most pressing concerns, almost secured the European Banking Agency in 2017 (losing to France on a coin toss), secured the position of ECB chief economist (2019) and presidency of the euro zone for a second term (2022). Other high-profile roles including European Ombudsman, head of the European Court of Auditors, executive director of the European Medicines Agency and president of the European Court of Human Rights are held by Irish people.

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He is right about new Irish graduates coming into the European institutions and the Government certainly needs to work harder to secure a healthier pipeline of Irish people working in the commission and elsewhere across the union. Approximately 10 per cent of Irish people working in the EU are under 40. He is right that the EU is changing and that Ireland needs to think about what the current direction of travel means for us. He is, however, completely wrong to say that the State has retreated into its traditional role of “harmless humanitarian”.

To a certain extent, Michael McGrath’s role will be what he makes of it but as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in the parliament in July, “Europe cannot control dictators and demagogues across the world, but it can choose to protect its own democracy”. That job now falls to McGrath.

Let’s be clear about this: protecting the rule of law and European democracy remained at the heart of EU policy discussions during the last mandate. Most of this focused on the recusants, Hungary and Poland, and on external threats, particularly from Russia and China.

As McGrath put it: “Europe’s democracy and economy relies on justice and the rule of law.” It is for this reason that von der Leyen has called on him to add a Single Market dimension to the rule of law report to address issues affecting companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, operating across borders.

His duties in the sphere of consumer protection open up great opportunities to promote cross-border services in sectors including telecoms, insurance and banking, providing transparency and value for money.

[ Michael McGrath’s new job in Europe shows just how far Ireland’s stock has fallen ]

Drea also refers to what he calls “Fianna Fáil’s continuing naivety on European Affairs”. Apart from the absurdity of criticising politicians for sticking to their election promises, Drea should note that Fianna Fáil secured its best European election result in 20 years as well as significant senior positions in the European Parliament. He should also know that the election of a commission president is one of the most important functions of an MEP, not something transactional in exchange for political office. Is it any wonder that people would be cynical about politics when this is considered a sensible approach? His argument presupposes and endorses the view that von der Leyen would distribute portfolios not based on the merits or otherwise of available candidates but based on how MEPs of that nationality voted.

This is not a serious argument and in any case, suggests that von der Leyen is not fit for office if her distribution of portfolios to her college of commissioners is based on loyalty rather than ability.

To be fair, she has been a good president on some of the big issues including during the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, her position on Gaza has been a catastrophic failure of leadership especially when compared to her position on Ukraine. She reacted to a finding by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the possibility of genocide on the part of Russia in its war against Ukraine with integrity; however, the ICJ’s finding of “plausible genocide” against Israel was met with silence.

This undermines international law and the EU’s credibility on the issue. Above all, the failure to restrain Israel has led to thousands of innocent deaths in Gaza. I am not alone in this criticism. The EU’s outgoing foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, regularly criticised her pro-Israel stance.

McGrath will be an outstanding commissioner and will bring his financial acumen to discussions in the college of commissioners about the future policy direction of the EU. He is at the height of his political powers and we are lucky to be represented in Brussels by one of the most able politicians of this generation.

Barry Andrews is a member of the European Parliament representing Dublin