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PRESIDENT OF THE European Commission José Manual Barroso was largely positive in his State of the Union address this morning, kicking of the new parliament term with a focus on achieving a banking union and easing unemployment.
Speaking to members of the parliament, Barroso said that Europe has come a long way in the last five years but the “crisis it not over”.
“”The resilience of our union has been tested and will continue to be tested”, he said.
Let us not overestimate the positive results but let’s not also underestimate what has been done. One swallow does not make a summer, nor one fine day but we have good reason to be confident.
Barroso mentioned Ireland’s return to the markets, further growth expected in our economy this year and rehiring of staff in our manufacturing companies.
MEP Nessa Childers had something to say about this:
While the Commission president signalled positive signs in the most stricken countries, he said that the most pressing problem in Europe right now is unemployment. “The current level is economically unsustainable, politically untenable, socially unacceptable,” he told the parliament.
On the issue of the single banking mechanism, Barroso stressed that the parliament must do what is necessary to have it adopted during this term.
“We will not come back to the old normal – we have to shape the new normal,” he said.
Some will say we have given too much money to the most vulnerable countries, others will say we have given too little. This kind of interdependence means an European solutions can work. When you are in the same boat, one person cannot say ‘your end of the boat is sinking’.
Barroso finished by telling MEPs that they will be “judged together” in the upcoming elections. “Let us work together for Europe with passion and determination,” he told them.
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Can we please stop propagating the lies of the English media? Brexit did the damage, not the protocol.
@James Pelow: Very well said. They’re actually using it as a distraction. And it’s drawing us into something that has nothing to do with us. Brexit is the problem. End of story.
You can’t hold a poll asking people if they think the Protocol is good for Northern Ireland without clarifying what the alternative is.
That’s like asking a child if they think the settlement that their parents agreed to after divorce is good.
Let’s be clear… article 16 does not end the protocol. It can suspend a part of it for a short period of time. When the UK says it will trigger A16, call it out for what they want to do….they want to scrap it and force a border on the island of Ireland or a border between Ireland and EU. That’s their plan and I believe it’s been the plan all along. This mess has been made by the UK and the protocol is a plaster. The GB companies that send those goods that will never end up back in the EU (including ROI) need to be better catered for. The issue is that there is no trust between the UK and EU as, so far, the UK hasn’t implemented main parts of the protocol so all at risk goods must be considered guilty until proven innocent.
Ok theJournal…. Time to correct your headlines… “Is Brexit bad or good for firms in Northern Ireland?”
The protocol is a workaround to the main issue, Brexit..
While I’ve no doubt it has caused some legitimate disruption for businesses heavily linked to GB, how did the study take into account costs (for consultancy etc) that would’ve been incurred without the procotol because they also trade with the EU?
Or how did it take into account all the paperwork NI businesses save because they can trade with the Republic and the rest of the EU freely?
All these analyses seem to assume that trade with Ireland was either insignificant, or its continuity was a a given (neither of these are true) and that any disruption with GB is a cost without any quantifiable benefit (again not true).
It’s not the protocol that’s not working. It’s brexit that’s not working.
How dare the EU break away from the United Kingdom. They’ve made things very difficult for everyone, especially the Brits!
By leaving the CU and SM and going for a Sharia Brexit GB turned itself into a legal and regulatory Kaliningrad. Their call-their choice…If they hadn’t CHOSEN that there would be no protocol. They want a hard border in IRL or IRL out the the EU-they will get neither but what they will get is humiliation.
It is improving trade between north and south.
have your say