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Pringle: Europe Day should be opportunity for critical reflection
- Updated: 11th May 2021
Independent TD for Donegal, Thomas Pringle, said the annual Europe Day should provide an opportunity for critical reflection of EU policies and their impact.
Deputy Pringle said: “There’s no doubt there have been some benefits to membership of the European Union, but I don’t think the institutions and bureaucrats spend any time on critical reflection.”
The deputy said: “We have members in this House talk about how much we got through structural funds and CAP payments, as if it’s something we should be thankful for. Actually, Europe should be thanking us for the €120 billion worth of fish that we have allowed the EU to take out of our waters and that’s only as far as the year 2000. And in that same period, we received €45 billion of CAP payments and structural funds and every other kind of fund that was coming from Europe.
“Even at that time, in the year 2000, there was a €75 billion deficit in our favour and that is only growing over the last number of years,” he said.
Deputy Pringle said EU asylum and migration policies must also be reviewed.
Deputy Pringle said: “We talk about how Europe delivers peace across the world, and the asylum and migration policies of the EU have enabled and indirectly contributed to the deaths of untold numbers of people, children and babies, in the seas around Europe. There is an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Lesvos.”
Deputy Pringle said the EU must also stand up for Palestine and the Palestinian people and clarify the relationship that Israel has with the EU.
