Speech by Commissioner McGuinness at The Day of Welcomes 20th Anniversary Celebration: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the 2004 Accession of 10 EU Member States

The Day of Welcomes 20th Anniversary Celebration

The best thing I can do after watching an amazing, beautiful video is be very brief.

Because what's really lovely is that my words won't matter in 20 years' time.

But we've just heard will matter.

And that poetry transcends, and I hope that the Heaney family who I've had the privilege to meet, appreciate that, and we certainly appreciate all that you did to allow your husband and father be what he is to this nation.

I have a long title, but it's kind of irrelevant for this.

What I want to say to some extent, May Day and 2004, resonates with me.

Here in the presence of the Tánaiste and the former President of the European Parliament and our Minister, and all who are gathered, the dignitaries.

Because it was my foray into politics.

And I do remember enlargement was hugely significant, and I was only to learn how significant that was when I was a Member of the European Parliament.

And I met the colleagues from all Member States, but particularly our new Member States, and how profound that was, that we'd had a welcome for them here in Ireland.

Now I know, Tánaiste, you remember the year 2004 and that summer, because you did a great thing about no more smoking indoors, which I think we should also applaud.

And it certainly was an issue on the campaign trail, but it was the right decision.

And I know that the former President of the Parliament, Pat Cox, you were very involved in the event last week where we marked in the European Parliament this very momentous occasion.

Because we're living in such challenging times it's important to celebrate.

To come together and to speak of what is good and indeed what can be better.

For me the word hope and celebration is as pertinent today as it was 20 years ago.

Because we've had this great enlargement, bringing with it not just countries, not just economics, but culture and language and history and stories that now resonate in a much bigger way than had you not joined.

In fact it's unthinkable that you wouldn't have joined, which is why we're here celebrating that you did.

For Ireland, last year we celebrated 50 years.

That seems like a moment in time, but it goes to show how time travels very fast and how we need to make progress all the time, not taking for granted the things that are today and that work very well today.

But if you look at what has happened in our Member States, the ten, everything's been good.

There's been increasing employment, your production has increased including in agriculture.

And we've also benefited.

One of the things I would say to you, who represent those countries, we're so grateful in the European Union that we've had ten new Member States at that time to contribute to our growth and development in the broadest sense.

Because I think the day we look at the European Union as just an economic union, to get something from, is the day we perish.

We have to believe in the value of people coming together that don't know each other, that may not understand each other's culture.

But actually know that if we come together we can do great things.

And we have done great things.

Notwithstanding all the challenges.

Indeed in the last 20 years, you and we have all faced many, many challenges.

But I think we've risen to them because we have worked together.

And I think that speaks a lot for what the European Union is.

We're not forced to be together.

It's voluntary, and you've chosen, as others have and will in the future.

It works because there is a feeling of unity, a feeling of being involved in something bigger.

And if I look again to the institutions, I've had the privilege of working in the Parliament and indeed in the Commission with colleagues from all Member States.

But we've had a Polish President of the European Council, Donald Tusk.

We've had now Roberta Metsola, who is Maltese and President of the European Parliament.

And of course a former President also from Poland in the Parliament, Jerzy Buzek.

So your countries have flown your flags really well.

But more importantly, you've flown the flag of Europe with your own flags.

And I think that speaks of something that's intangible but absolutely crucial.

I'm glad that all the colleagues who have spoken have mentioned that enlargement is now on the agenda very firmly.

It had gone off the boil, but now – tragically, and I acknowledge the Ambassador from Ukraine – sadly war has driven us to realise that we need to look beyond our current borders.

And of course, joining Europe isn't easy.

Those of you in the room will know that.

And there are values and there are things that have to be done.

And we in the European Union will help those who wish to join to achieve the targets that are ambitious but are really, really important.

It's also True to say that enlargement is a reflection for the countries themselves.

It's a huge challenge to take on.

And it's why we are with those who will and want to join Europe in the near and far distant future.

Because it will make this Union of today of 27 stronger.

And all the barriers that are there are completely surmountable.

The European Union will continue its solidarity towards Ukraine in the face of Russia's illegal invasion.

We will continue to support our candidate countries as they make their preparations.

So that they too will be able to meet the high standards and in particular, rule of law, in an area that I work in, anti-money laundering, and of course issues around food safety.

And we are already engaging in all of those things with them.

So the motto of Europe, and we all say it and we mean it, is that we are stronger together.

And at a time that the politics for ‘we' is being replaced in some places by the politics of ‘me', I think we need to talk about ‘we' much more often.

And value the art of compromise, of sitting down, disagreeing but emerging from that meeting where we can and we must agree.

I want to return to Seamus Heaney.

He stole the show, and rightly so.

And say to the Member States that we're celebrating and to those that will come, because we look forward to the next Day of Welcomes:

“On a day when newcomers appear, let it be a homecoming”.

And I hope that's how you felt, 20 years ago, that it was a homecoming.

I warn you that when you get to your 50th, you will say, where did that time go?

And I hope that we are stronger now.

And I say rather starkly, there's no guarantee of that.

Unless there are men and women willing to stand up and contribute to a European Union that has really been part of my growing up in the Ireland of today, and that has changed, as the Tánaiste said, so profoundly.

So let's move to that future, but build it, together, working together for the betterment of all our citizens.

It is great to be here to celebrate and mark 20 years.

It's great for me because it marks that I won't be running for the European Parliament, but I'm deeply interested in making sure that that institution remains strong, that the Commission remains strong, and that the Council and all these formations stay strong.

And the one thing that Europe does well is we have strong institutions, and we need to protect them, and indeed always to strengthen them.

So a thousand welcomes to the ten, 20 years ago, and it's a pleasure to be here just to have a few words of engagement.

Thank you.