EUROPEAN UNION leaders must show “courage and leadership” to face the challenges of today and not behave like “sheep” prepared only to offer “the weak-willed, vain words which have become all too familiar”, Minister of State for Europe, Fine Gael’s Lucinda Creighton has said.
“Europe falters today because we have become afraid to challenge public opinion. Politicians have become sheep, not leaders,” Ms Creighton, who has been deeply involved in lengthy talks with European counterparts, told a Trinity College Dining Club gathering in London.
“They govern by focus group, by opinion poll and by their popularity ratings vis-à-vis the next election. This becomes more alarming when we recognise that given the multiplicity of governments and elections in an enlarged European Union, the EU is caught up in a dizzying merry-go-round of perennial election campaigns, leading to dangerous levels of populism,” she said.
In unusually blunt words for an Irish minister, Ms Creighton went on: “We cannot allow bold decision-making to continue to fester and decline in some sort of ideological twilight zone that is bereft of vision, courage or any semblance of leadership.
“We need a new genre of European leader that is prepared to be brave, to face down a critical media and a cynical class of commentator, to put their country’s interest and Europe’s interest, ahead of their own personal short-term electoral prospects.
“We need and the public must demand, long-term vision coupled with courage, not short-term self interest and hypocrisy,” she told the Trinity Dining Club, where college graduates based in the UK meet a number of times a year.
“Europe’s leaders have gone from contributing to the development of the union to identifying what they can take from it and parade to their own electorates. While the European spirit lives on, what is absent is the willingness and courage to argue, communicate and persuade people that it is still a good idea,” Ms Creighton said.
“We need and the public must demand, long-term vision coupled with courage, not short-term self interest and hypocrisy,” she went on, adding that the EU has brought Europe “from the ravages of war to unknown peace and prosperity”.
“If we want that to continue, short-term political gain must be sacrificed for long-term security. That’s the issue, the choice that faces Europe’s leaders.
“Only genuine and courageous leadership can guarantee that peace and prosperity,” she added.
