The member states of the European Union need to address citizens’ concerns on unemployment and growing inequality, according to President Michael D Higgins.

He was speaking yesterday in a debate at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin. The president pointed to the policy of cohesion developed by former EU Commission chief Jacques Delors in tandem with the creation of the single market.

"Today, this 'cohesion pact', which for several decades has been one of the foundations of the affectio societatis between European citizens, is under threat, both for complex reasons of policy design, and because the current crisis has abruptly called into question the principle of solidarity between the various regions of the EU."

Fragile path

He said that European integration was now on a fragile path, torn between the requirements of fiscal adjustment and increasing social discontent, with a widening gap between greater financial, regulatory and economic integration on the one hand, and the social solidarity required to give these policies popular legitimacy on the other.

“I personally believe that the current encroachment of expertise and technocracy over democratic debate is a perilous one for the future of European democracy. There is nothing wrong with technical efficiency, rather the contrary. The danger arises from a conception of economic policy and technocratic administration that are governed chiefly by the instrumental criteria of ‘efficiency’ and ‘success’ and are thus immune to moral-normative considerations.”

President Higgins said it was wrong to portray ethics as “soft” in contrast to the “hard science” of economics.

“Indeed, the invitation to view the world as rational, calculating utility maximisers has inflicted deep injuries on our moral imaginations, on how we conceive our relations with others, and with our natural environment. And the recent economic and financial upheavals have also thrown a glaring light on the shortcomings of the intellectual tools provided by mainstream economics and its key assumption regarding the sustainability of self-regulating markets.”

‘Fresh beginning’

“I believe that there is a unifying force in an appeal towards making a fresh beginning in the crafting of our shared European space.”

The president's address was a response to the book How Much is Enough by Robert and Edward Skidelsky.

President Higgins said the Skidelkys had made an important claim in relocating the issue of work within the wider frame of “the good life” as defined by the economist Keynes who in an essay in 1930 predicted that future generations would work only enough to live “wisely, agreeably, and well.”