Former German vice-chancellor Joschka Fischer visits Dublin on Monday (January 23rd) to speak on the theme “The End of the European Project?”. He is joined on the podium by former Irish Times foreign policy editor Paul Gillespie and David O’Sullivan, chief operating officer of the European External Action Service.
In the summer 2011 edition of the Dublin Review of Books, Joschka Fischer wrote: “Germany is not only the main economic beneficiary of the EU, it is also in political terms by far the main beneficiary of European unification. Without the process of European unification and Germany’s integration into NATO, it is unlikely that our neighbours would have ever agreed to German reunification. Lasting peace on our continent is built upon this integration. When making these points, I often run up against those who claim that German unification is an established, somewhat tired fact and that hackneyed arguments about peace are no longer compelling or relevant. If this is true, what is the purpose of Europe?
“The answer to that question is simple: A reunified Germany, located at the heart of the continent, would fare far worse than it does now if it were to find itself with its difficult past and considerable size forced to act within the context of an unravelling EU that remained formally intact but internally split into fractious blocs. An EU resembling little more than a trade zone the likes of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is vastly less preferable to the current situation or a strong and integrated union in the future.
“The difference between a strong and a weak Europe is of profound strategic and historical significance for our country and all our neighbours. We must make a strong and integrated Europe our top priority.”
For further details of Monday’s event, which takes place at the JM Synge Theatre in the Arts Building of Trinity College Dublin at 7.15pm contact Helen Murray at The Policy Institute, +353 1 896 3486/ hmurray@tcd.ie
Joschka Fischer in the Dublin Review of Books
Paul Gillespie in the current Dublin Review of Books on Ireland's options