WHAT EXACTLY DO we know about the European Union and how it works? This is a key question that we tried to answer in The Good Information Project this month as we looked at Ireland’s relationship with the EU 50 years after we voted to join it.
MEP Barry Andrews was one among many experts and members of the public who told us – in our open thread, our national survey and in interviews and live events – that Irish people are interested in what is going on in the European Parliament (EP) and beyond, precisely because it impacts what happens to us here. Andrews noted:
I think Irish people are better informed on what the EU does because of multiple referendums over the years and because of Brexit. However, the role of the various institutions is not understood. Irish media should do more work on the EP considering the volume of law that originates in the EU.
Listening to all of you, we dedicated the final topic in our 18-month initiative to better our understanding our relationship to the EU.
It is 50 years since the Irish public voted overwhelmingly in May 1972 (83% Yes vote) to join what was then the European Economic Community (EEC). Coincidentally, a huge piece of research we undertook with independent polling company Ireland Thinks this month recorded that 83% of the Irish population believe that we’re better off inside the Union. On the other hand, our research also found that when we asked: “Do you feel you understand the process by which laws come to pass within the EU?” 22% of those surveyed said ‘No’, and 55% said they were ‘unsure’.
How does it all work?
So this was our challenge: to find out how the European Union works, the impact it has on us, and what our influence on it is – or should be.
If that survey question about legislation got you thinking, then you might be interested in our explainers about how the European Parliament actually works, and how the Union receives and distributes its funding.
Another important process to understand is how a country becomes an EU member state, especially right now with Ukraine and Moldova just at the beginning of that journey, and other candidate states stalled along what can be a very long road indeed.
We also looked at some everyday impacts of being in the EU – from standardised safety regulations to a significant reform of European elections (we would have to approve that at national level) which could see us voting for some new pan-European MEPs who are not just from Ireland.
And on the very practical side, how easy is it actually to live and work in another member state? We have you covered here.
Living, working and studying within the EU is an obvious advantage to our membership and something explored further in The Good Information LIVE panel event which we held in Galway this month. Our youth audience asked for information from our panellists – who included ‘local’ MEPs Maria Walsh and Chris MacManus – but they also asked them some tough questions, including on action (or perceived inaction) by the EU on issues that particularly concerned them.
What are the issues we worry about?
Our young audience members in Galway were particularly worried about the speed to which the EU is attending to the climate crisis; something discussed at length by our reporter Lauren Boland in a segment of our final episode of The Good Information Podcast. On the other side of the age demographic, our Ireland Thinks research found that those aged 65+ were most concerned about how the EU was handling various migration crises of recent years. (We did extensive work on that issue last October if you want to read the series from then here.)
With the shadow of Brexit still looming over us, we also looked at Euroscepticism in general and whether there is a place for a ‘constructive’ version of that in order to make sure the EU is always listening and evolving.
In the meantime, we have to deal with the major issues in front of us, something laid out clearly in this piece on four challenges facing Ireland in its future with the EU.
The tough questions
As with the queries from our younger audience members on what the social face and climate consciousness of the EU is and ought to be, we took the time to ask each of Ireland’s 13 MEPs to fill out a questionnaire on what they’re doing for us in the EP, what surprises them about how Europe works – and what they propose should change.
All of them answered – and extensively. Read it here.
One issue thrown up by MEP Clare Daly is the €100m spent each year running a second parliament building and session in Strasbourg in France. We asked why here.
We also held the European Commission (EC) up to the lens after it approved the release of billions of euro in Covid-19 recovery funding to Poland, despite unprecedented dissent from within its ranks over that country – and Hungary’s – democratic backsliding in recent years.
As for our MEPs themselves, are they doing absolutely everything they can to best influence legislation formation in the EP and represent Irish interests? Sink your teeth into CJ McKinney’s excellent research and analysis into how Ireland’s MEPs are losing out (and could do better).
So where are we 50 years on from accession? Fionnuala Richardson – who spoke to us for our Open Newsroom webinar last week – was a civil servant for the Irish Labour party in the Socialist grouping in the European Parliament in its very early years (in Luxembourg as it was then).
The Labour party here had campaigned for a No vote to entry in 1972, not, said Fionnuala because it was against the idea of European cooperation but because of fears around native Irish industry losing out in the free market (which it did, at first, citing the car manufacturing business) – and also because it simply felt the Yes campaign left no room for questioning the idea at all.
“To force a conversation,” said Ms Richardson.
Ultimately, our series has discovered that our relationship with the European Union is hugely influenced by how it communicates what it is doing (could do better), how the media covers the work and not the drama (should do better), and how each individual citizen arms themselves with that information so to better direct their vote and their questions.
This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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