David O’Sullivan dismisses the notion that the European Union has been tardy in its response to the migrant crisis. “That’s most unfair,” he says when asked about complaints that the leaders are waiting a fortnight for an emergency summit on the affair.
O’Sullivan is a 35-year veteran of Brussels. Last year he moved to Washington as EU ambassador to the United States. Previously he was secretary general of the European Commission and later its director general for trade.
On a flying visit to Dublin, he says commission president Jean-Claude Juncker is likely to unveil “quite an impressive package” on migration tomorrow. To critics who say it has been a while coming, O’Sullivan says there’s no point having a summit if there’s nothing on the table for decision.
There was an escalation of the response to trafficking in the Mediterranean in May, he says. This was not without tragedy after the withdrawal of an earlier mission but he says that was for “well-intentioned” reasons.
“While the press has to a certain extent focused on the negative there’s an amount that’s positive. The Italian navy has saved something like 120,000 lives in the last year. We can be very proud of the Naval Service and their contribution.”
Given new waves of migrants arriving via the Balkans, O’Sullivan says the commission was right to wait to formulate its response.
Getting political consensus in a union of 28 countries is never straightforward, he says. “The price we pay for respect for the democratic values of our 28 member states is that our decision-making is slower and a bit messier. But it delivers in the end.”
Consensus
The system in Washington is different, although he makes the case that Europeans tend to underestimate the diversity of the US and the decentralisation of its politics. “It is a fully federal state and we are not. Of course I agree with that and we are a long way from anything like that,” he says.
“And you see that when we’re trying to respond to crises, we really have to forge a consensus between 28 member states each with their own democracies.”
This weighs heavily on decision-making – and the present crisis is no different. “It is a complex issue. You say migration. Some people will say this is actually a refugee crisis more than a migration crisis.
“But it has an immediate humanitarian dimension. It has respective international obligations for asylum and refugees. It has a question of addressing smugglers and traffickers of people who are partly to blame for this. It has the question of the political crisis which is at the origin.
“Much of this flows from the crisis in Syria and we have to acknowledge the enormous contributions by the neighbouring countries.”
Labour market
This must also be seen through the prism of Europe’s overall migration policy, he says. “Demographically we’re actually going to need migrants in years to come and we need an intelligent system of allowing . . . a regular inflow of people from outside to help fill the gaps in our labour market which we know demographically are going to emerge.”
O’Sullivan is closely involved in Europe’s talks with the US on a free trade pact. The objective remains to reach a deal next year before President Barack Obama leaves office. If it takes another year or two, that would still be a “reasonable” outcome. “For the moment I wouldn’t say there are major difficulties between us.”
Of the transatlantic relationship in general, O’Sullivan sees a silver lining in difficult international situations. The Europeans have realised US leadership and involvement are indispensable in solving world problems. At the same time, the Americans have understood that their “best allies” are the Europeans.
“I think we’ve seen this in the Ukraine crisis, where it was absolutely clear that we have managed to maintain, I think to the great surprise of Mr Putin, transatlantic unity particularly in terms of the sanctions,” he says. Some people were sceptical that Europe would hold the line and we have.
“Iran is another excellent example because it was mainly European sanctions that brought the Iranians back to the table.”
What of the Irish situation? “Seen from Washington, people are full of admiration for what Ireland has been able to achieve in the last five years,” he says.
“We know that many people are still suffering and that this has done a lot of damage to individuals and to families. But, frankly, the country has clearly turned a corner and the huge amount of American investment coming is a vote of confidence in what people see as an optimistic future for this country.”
