Gay Mitchell

A vision for internal and external solidarity

By 2013 China will be as big as an economy as the United States. Within 40 years the population of the world will go up from just over 6 billion to just over 8 billion people. 90% of these will be born into what is now the developing world. If they are born into a world of HIV/AIDS, hunger, indebtedness, poverty and hopelessness we are leaving a terrible inheritance to our own children and grandchildren for as sure as night follows day, unless we address these issues, we are setting the stage for global confrontation. For selfless and selfish reasons I want to see a Europe which makes these issues its primary external priority.

In the first half of the last century 60 million Europeans, most of them in the prime of their lives, died because of two World Wars which started in Europe. Rampant nationalism gave rise to these wars. The word “Nationalism” comes from the word natio, which means greater community. We have since changed our sense of community, being at once Irish and European for example. Are there any such thing as Irish children, French children, Latvian children or Greek children? Are there not only children born in Ireland, France, Latvia and Greece? Where they are born of course helps determine religion and culture, but they all have a common humanity and a need to belong.

My vision for Europe is one where different creeds and none, and persons of different coloured skins, culture and tradition are integrated, not assimilated. Assimilation is where we all must be the same, integration is were we respect and nurture differences. There can be unity in diversity, we can be proud, for example, to be Irish in Europe.

My vision is one where Europeans not only have rights but also responsibilities, where enterprise and social justice go hand in hand. The enterprising spirit must be encouraged, but the wealth created by enterprise must provide for solidarity with those of us who are, or who become, vulnerable.

Gay Mitchell MEP (Biography)