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Small European stakeholders should have their say

The great European project is in crisis. Gone are the days when we could feel the sense of optimism that flowed from our membership of the European Economic Community in its formative years. Founded in the aftermath of World War II, the project devised by Dr Schumann and others was to create an economic and political framework that would put an end to the military conflagrations of World War I and World War II. In particular it was devised to cement old adversaries France and Germany into a common area of economic and political interest. The Common Market was born - originally made up of the six core countries of France, West Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. It then expanded outwards to include ourselves, the United Kingdom and Denmark. That was back in 1973. Spain, Portugal and Greece were to follow and the concept of a political community of nations as distinct from just a purely economic club started to take hold. Later what was now the twelve were followed by Sweden, Finland and Austria and the collapse of the Iron Curtain brought in a big number of countries from the former Eastern Bloc.

Over all this time the European Union increasingly developed a strong social policy arm as well as its primary economic component. Successive treaties have strengthened the concept of political union. The European Single Market abolished border Customs controls and the role which the European Union plays in the lives of Irish people today is comprehensive - one has only to consider the areas of Agriculture and Finance to see the reality of this. Our membership of the Eurozone has tightened that European embrace.

Against this backdrop the European Central Bank and the European Union (with the International Monetary Fund) make up what is known as the Troika who gave us the Bail Out and who are now calling the shots in terms of the stringencies we must impose upon ourselves in the budget. The Troika while having come to our rescue are nevertheless tough taskmasters and with less money in our pockets and increased taxes and charges we are feeling the pain. We will emerge from all of this much chastened and wiser - that is if everything goes to plan. But the turmoil on the international money markets over the past 12 to 14 months is causing deeper anxiety by the day. Greece, ourselves, Portugal who are described as the peripherial countries have had to be rescued. Default was not to be countenanced in order to shore up the Euro. The markets then focused unfavourably on Italy and Berlosconi was forced out. Now the triple A status of France (in terms of its credit rating) is threatened and Germany itself is starting to feel the heat.

There is a general consensus that what Europe and indeed what the world requires at this time is leadership. Chancellor Merkel and President Zarkozy appear on our screens daily but they appear to lack the vision and the resolution of their predecessors Adenaeur and De Gaulle. No society should be a hostage to the markets but this is the reality of Capitalism and it seems we must live with it - for now anyway.

The markets hate uncertainty and the political uncertainty at the heart of the European project is quite deafening at this time.

Where are the Dutch and those smaller countries like ourselves who have conceded so much of their sovereignty to be part of a bigger economic club that would bring benefits to their citizens? As France and Germany dither and the large group of smaller countries remain silent the threat to the Euro and indeed to the entire European project has reached critical proportions.

We may be irritated and annoyed by Europe's intrusiveness in our lives but looking at it in the round Europe has been good for the economy of this country. Ireland is a much better place than when we joined 38 years ago. If the Euro currency fails it would be a terrible blow for Ireland - our membership of the Euro has helped us build our huge export market in Europe with its population of 500m people. As a leading world currency it has enhanced our ability to trade with other global entities such as the Chinese and other emerging world economies.

While France and Germany are central players the European project shouldn't belong exclusively to them. Smaller states must band together and take action to save the concept founded by those who believed that Europe would be a better and safer place if countries were joined together in harmony rather than having to exist at best in mistrustful separation or at worst in terrible conflict. The lessons of the two world wars should make us try and avoid the latter.