Baltic states' ‘visceral fear' of Russian invasion ‘almost impossible' for Irish to understand, says ex-MEP
triple-lock
on sending Irish soldiers abroad while other European Union states fear invasion by
Russia
, former Green Party MEP
Ciarán Cuffe
has declared.
[
'Hands off Ireland's neutrality': Government warned changes to triple-lock system will be fought
Opens in new window
]
The 'visceral fear' felt by
Estonia
,
Latvia
and
Lithuania
that Russian leader
Vladmir Putin
could order the invasion of their countries is 'almost impossible to understand' for an Irish audience, he said.
Speaking at the Patrick MacGill summer school in Glenties, Co Donegal, Mr Cuffe, who is now the co-chair of the European Green Party, said the Baltic states are
debating whether to pull out
of an international agreement banning landmines.
'Why? Because these countries want to have a belt of landmines ready if Putin comes across the border. We can have an esoteric discussion of the triple lock. But in those countries, it's what might happen tomorrow or the next day,' he said.
READ MORE
[
Poll shows Ireland's attachment to neutrality is strong but nuanced
Opens in new window
]
Eastern European EU states worry about mobilising soldiers in 24 hours: 'It's a debate we're not even thinking about here. We're still wrestling with [a report] that said our army, our
defence forces
are 40 years out of date. I think we have to come to grips with that.'
Former MEP Ciarán Cuffe at Patrick MacGill Summer School on Saturday
Speaking on the Gaza crisis and Ireland's stand on the issue, Mr Cuffe urged an Irish audience to remember that 'the legacy of the Holocaust casts a very long shadow over central Europe.
'When I talk to my colleagues in Germany or Austria, they are so hard-wired into protecting the state of Israel, they find it incredibly difficult to recognise the magnitude of human slaughter of Palestinian people that is occurring.
'However, public opinion is changing in Germany,' he said, adding that the European Green Party now favours the suspension of parts of the EU-Israel association agreement that do not require all EU states to agree.
Ireland's focus on the Gaza crisis is understandable given our history as a postcolonial country: 'We do find it so strong and so close to our own history. So, we have to act on that,' he said,
Meanwhile, Dr Eoin Drea, senior researcher at the Brussels-based Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, warned that Ireland's positions on neutrality and defence spending have damaged the country's standing.
'I always get anxious talking about Ukraine in Ireland because I really want Irish people to know that in Brussels, Ireland is not viewed as a credible voice, as a serious voice on security and defence,' he said.
Ireland is talking about buying a towed sonar array to track Russian submarines 'interfering with our undersea cables, but on some days, we don't have enough sailors even to put a ship to sea. So, what are we going to tow this sonar array with?'
Before the Ukraine crisis, few other EU states took any notice of Ireland's attitudes on defence and neutrality, he said: 'There was a lot of ignorance about the Irish situation before Ukraine. We were out on the western seaboard, we didn't matter.'
Since then, however, it has become clear to other EU states that the United Kingdom 'takes care' of Ireland's security and defence: 'If there's a Russian fighter that buzzes by Irish airspace, it's RAF jets that are scrambled to meet them,' he said.
[
Who protects Irish skies? The secret air defence deal that dates back to the cold war
Opens in new window
]
Meanwhile, trust in democracy has fallen significantly over the last 25 years across western countries because of voters' 'lack of faith' in traditional political parties' ability to tackle problems, former minister for Europe
Lucinda Creighton
said.
Scandals in nearly all western countries have led to 'an erosion of trust in the consensus around the political order', the former Fine Gael TD said.
Traditional centre-left and centre-right political parties have 'struggled to capture the attention of younger voters' and have been unable to use social media tools to connect with them, unlike populist parties.
Blue-collar and middle-class workers 'just don't have the same hope and positivity and sense of opportunity that they might have done in the past', leading to a lack of faith in the liberal order, she went on.
Equally, populist or right-wing parties in Poland, Germany, France and elsewhere have successfully 'adopted quite radical left-wing policies, but coupled them with some right-wing narratives', she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Irish Times
One in four businesses not ready for new pension regime
One in four businesses have yet to take any action to prepare for the introduction of the new mandatory workplace pension scheme which is due to come into force at the start of next year. Over half of the business surveyed by global professional services firm Aon cite cost as their main concern around the introduction of auto-enrolment, which will see around 800,000 workers between the ages of 23 and 60 who are earning more than €20,000 automatically signed up to a pension called My Future Fund. Dominic Coyle has the details. A journalist based in Cork has launched a High Court challenge against the Press Council of Ireland after his website was denied membership of the body earlier this year. JJ O'Donoghue, the founder and editor of local newsletter Tripe+Drisheen, has initiated judicial review proceedings, alleging that the press council failed to give adequate reasons for its decision. Ian Curran reports. READ MORE The average cost of raising a child from birth to the age of 21 was put at almost €170,000 in an eye-watering report in May, a 60 per cent increase since 2015. However, for one cohort of people, the financial challenges around raising a child begin years in advance of shopping for cots or even maternity wear because of infertility issues , writes Fiona Reddan. Dominic Coyle hears from a reader who is the executor of her father's will and has run into problems sorting out his tax affairs with Revenue, including finding his personal claim number and beneficiaries who live abroad. David McWilliams on how 'big incentives' to build could save Dublin city Listen | 36:51 Neither tariffs nor the threat of an EU-US trade war bother Ryanair chief executive, Michael O'Leary , despite the fact that his company is buying up to 329 aircraft from Seattle-based manufacturer Boeing. He is sticking with his view that US president, Donald Trump, will continue to stall their introduction until the two jurisdictions agree a trade deal, writes Cantillon. The focus when the Government publishes its key economic documents on Tuesday will be on where the extra investment resources are going. But, says Cantillon, a key question will be what the additional resources being devoted to projects in housing, water, energy, transport and so on in the revised National Development Plans mean for other parts of the budget. Tesla reports earnings on Wednesday, but does it even matter? The newsflow has been dire for more than a year, writes Proinsias O'Mahony, with Tesla badly missing estimates in three of the past four quarters, yet the stock is up 30 per cent more than that period. If you'd like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money , the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘Dominance, dependency and blackmail': EU and China talks overshadowed by deep divisions
Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa arrive in Beijing on Thursday for an EU - China summit that has been cut down, scaled back and relocated halfway around the world. Xi Jinping will meet the two European Union presidents before the summit begins but he will leave it to premier Li Qiang to co-chair the meeting. The summit, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the EU, was due to be held in Brussels but the Chinese side insisted on moving it to Beijing. Beijing also reduced the summit to a one-day event, cancelling a planned trip with the European presidents to Anhui province on Friday. 'The China-EU relationship is currently more and more complicated,' said Shi Zhiqin, a professor of international relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The two sides are at odds over everything from trade policy to the war in Ukraine, with climate action almost the only major policy area where they are likely to make progress this week. And Donald Trump 's return to the White House, instead of bringing China and the EU closer together, appears to be driving them farther apart. When von der Leyen met Trump and six other world leaders at a Group of Seven (G7) summit last month, she used a prop to make a point. The European Commission president held up a rare earth magnet, a crucial component in electric vehicles and solar panels, which was manufactured in Estonia. What followed was a broadside against China and its economic model, which von der Leyen said had created a pattern of 'dominance, dependency and blackmail' that was killing key European industries. China controls much of the global supply of rare earth minerals, a fact Europe increasingly views as a concern and von der Leyen pushed for the EU to 'de-risk' and limit its economic dependency on the Asian economic superpower. The big problem, as many European leaders see it, is not just that China sells much more to Europe than it buys, but that state-subsidised Chinese industries are producing an excess of goods, which then end up flooding the European market. BYD electric cars waiting to be loaded on a ship are stacked at the international container terminal of Taicang Port at Suzhou Port, in China's eastern Jiangsu Province. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images The commission last year accused the Chinese state of unfairly subsidising BYD, SAIC and other electric carmakers, allowing them to produce cheaper EVs to undercut competitors made in Europe. EU officials were worried that the domestic European automotive sector would be muscled off the pitch and China would effectively dominate the EV market, at a time when European policymakers are encouraging a climate-conscious switch away from petrol and diesel engines. The same thing happened with solar panels several years back, another key industry in the EU's planned move away from fossil fuels. More than 90 per cent of the solar panels Europe buys now come from China. 'I think we still see China as a partner, but also a rival and a competitor,' a diplomat from one EU state said of the changing relationship. It is official EU policy to view China as a partner for co-operation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival, a description that rankles with Beijing. Shi said that China sees the relationship as essentially interdependent and regards the EU's approach as contradictory. 'If you think we are rivals, how can we co-operate?' he said. Some Chinese international relations experts expected Trump's return to the White House to bring China and the EU closer together. But others believed that the EU was unlikely to move towards Beijing, partly because many European policymakers are clinging to the transatlantic relationship in the hope that it will return to normal after Trump leaves office. Some Chinese international relations experts expected Trump's return to the White House to bring China and the EU closer together. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP 'China was mentally and materially ready for the tariff war,' Shi said. 'China produces or exports almost 90 per cent of the rare earths. The rare earths are very, very important to the USA and very important to the EU. Since the EU are targeting China as its rival, why can't China use its rare earths?' When China introduced an export licensing system for rare earths last April, it applied to the EU as well as the US. Companies have to apply for a new license every six months and the speed of processing applications appears to vary according to the diplomatic temperature. The EU's new eyes-wide-open approach has seen it hike up tariffs on imports of Chinese EVs, to protect European producers from being crowded out. China responded with its own tariffs on French cognac and other brandy sold from the EU, with threats more import levies on dairy could follow. China has placed tariffs on French cognac and other brandy sold from the EU, with threats more import levies on dairy could follow. Photograph: Regis Duvignau/Reuters Abigaël Vasselier, a former official in the EU's diplomatic corps who worked on China policy, said the EU was looking for a 'level playing field', but that was something Beijing could not deliver. 'We are asking the Chinese: 'Yes please could you change your entire economic model',' she said. That was something that was not going to happen, so Europe needed to look after itself as a result, she said. Ms Vasselier, now head of foreign relations at the Mercator Institute for China Studies think tank, said the EU recognising that areas where it co-operated with China were also simultaneous points of competition, was a bit of a recent 'mini revolution' in thinking. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been another flashpoint in EU-China relations, one that may cast a shadow over the upcoming summit. The EU is frustrated about the ongoing support China provides Russia in the war, with the Nato military alliance calling out Beijing as a decisive enabler of Moscow's military campaign. The EU says China is a key supplier to Russia of 'dual-use' goods that have civilian and military uses. It is also seen as playing an important role in Russia's evasion of economic sanctions aimed at hobbling its war effort. A staff member prepares for the arrival of officials in advance of a recent China-EU meeting Beijing. Photograph: Wang Zhao/ AFP One EU source said China's support for Russia was a block to any reset in the relationship. 'If you want to get closer to us ... that is only possible if you don't go through the backdoor continue to harm our security interests,' the official said. It was worth Europe putting China's support for Russia's war at 'the centre of the agenda' in the upcoming summit, Ms Vasselier said. 'At best the European objective should be that China limits its support to the Russian war economy,' Ms Vasselier said. Chinese entities that help Russia get around sanctions should themselves face EU sanctions, she said. The delegation from Brussels is expected to press China to stop 'any direct or indirect assistance' it is providing to Russia in its war with Ukraine, one EU official involved in the summit preparations said. The EU side would also be looking to have a 'frank' discussion about China's unfair trading practices, another EU official said. 'We have reached a point where the situation is becoming unsustainable for the European Union and those imbalances have to be addressed,' the official said. Beijing's official position on Ukraine is one of neutrality but when foreign minister Wang Yi met EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas this month, he is reported to have told her that China does not want Russia to lose the war. Such an outcome would allow the United States to shift its whole strategic focus towards confronting Beijing, he is reported as saying. When Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas this month, he is reported to have told her that China does not want Russia to lose the war. Photograph: EPA 'For a long time, the Soviet Union was a big threat to China. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, we have wanted Russia to keep stable. Because if Russia is not stable, it is threat to its neighbours, it is threat to EU, it is threat to China,' Shi said. 'Why is there a war between Russia and Ukraine? I think there is a quite different understanding between European countries and Chinese people because Russia has its security concern. Its security concern is Nato, Nato's enlargement, Nato's expansion ... China understands Russia's security concern. Chinese policy is to try to keep neutral, although the European Union and the USA do not think so.' China has condemned the EU's sanctioning of two Chinese banks Brussels believes to have provided cryptocurrency services that were frustrating European sanctions against Russia. Beijing warned that it could take retaliatory action against the measures, insisting that its trade with Russia is legitimate and consistent with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. 'Maybe when Wang Yi said that we don't want Russia lose, he means we don't want Russia to collapse. Russia is a very big power with many, many nuclear weapons. So the nuclear weapons could proliferate and that's a very serious threat to European security, to the world's security,' Shi said. 'If Russia collapses, the USA will try to target China as an enemy. That's why we want our world to be balanced, a balance of power.'
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
Government to prioritise infrastructure delivery as it unveils €200bn National Development Plan
Exemptions to some environmental assessments and a planning fast track for key national infrastructure are measures being studied by the Government as it bids to accelerate project delivery. The Cabinet committee on infrastructure was briefed last week on a review of blockages to delivery of projects and told that, while common-law jurisdictions are being hit hard by delays to infrastructure projects, Ireland is especially vulnerable due to the slow pace of the civil legal system here. As part of the review, reforms introduced in other countries are being examined, with the Government considering whether legislative steps are needed here. This comes as the Coalition prepares to unveil its €200 billion National Development Plan (NDP), which was agreed on Monday night when the funding allocation for the Department of Housing was signed off. READ MORE Officials are assessing legislative reforms undertaken in other common-law jurisdictions. The committee was told the California Environmental Quality Act essentially exempts developments on brownfield sites from certain environmental assessments. The committee heard Canada's One Canada Act enables the fast-tracking of infrastructure deemed to be of national importance. Infrastructure delivery is a priority for the Government as it seeks to tackle damaging shortfalls in housing in particular. Tánaiste Simon Harris recently told Fine Gael members that 'new ways' to better deliver infrastructure are needed, with the current process 'taking too long and causing significant problems for the economy and society'. It is understood that a presentation to the committee from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform outlined changes made in the UK's planning and infrastructure bill, as well as reforms introduced in New Zealand and Australia. The committee was told that infrastructure delivery in Ireland is being held back by complex regulatory frameworks that in turn contribute to an increase in High Court judicial reviews, place a burden on the courts and contribute to uncertainty. All of this drives up costs and can lead to years-long delays. Meanwhile, co-ordination between regulators is lacking and there is duplication between processes, Ministers were told. They were also briefed on issues in procurement, State co-ordination and funding. [ Ireland's infrastructure is 32% behind international peers, IMF finds Opens in new window ] The Cabinet will on Tuesday sign off the NDP, allocating billions to water and grid infrastructure, as well as capital investment in the likes of prisons and sports facilities. There will be more money for defence as well, with increased funding for radar, sonar and protection for Irish troops. On Monday night talks were continuing in an effort to reach agreement on funding for housing and water projects. The Government is to allocate an additional €30 billion to its existing capital funding allocation to boost infrastructural development across the economy over the next five years under plans to be unveiled on Tuesday. The housing and water funding was the final element of the NDP agreed on Monday night, with €40 billion allocated over five years. Alongside the NDP, the summer economic statement, to be published on Tuesday by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, will identify investment in water and energy infrastructure as a key priority for Budget 2026. Mr Donohoe will announce that the State will continue to put money away in the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund and the Future Ireland Fund, to protect Ireland from external shocks, and in anticipation of the increased costs of an ageing society. Mr Harris will tell Cabinet that this year's summer statement differs from previous ones due to the threat of significant US tariffs. He will say that budget decisions have to focus on jobs and investment amid 'considerable uncertainty' in EU-US trade talks.
