Saturday 9 May was Europe Day. As is our tradition in Ireland, no national pageant or parade was organised. Not that surprising really, as Europe does not invoke such great passion in us that would inspire such an event. That said, it does not mean that the day should be overlooked.
To celebrate this day, we at European Movement Ireland are not asking people to suddenly poke an EU flag out their front window and start singing Ode to Joy. Rather, we want everyone to take one moment and acknowledge the small but useful things the European Union does for us that we might usually overlook: the labels on our morning fry-up that tell us what is in our food and when to eat it by; the euros in our pockets; the 12 stars on our road signs which say Paid By Europe.
We in Ireland have major questions on Europe that as a nation we need to answer. We at European Movement Ireland are working to answer those questions for people, in plain English, so that we can make up our own minds on the EU and the role our country should play at the European table.
And while the EU is far from perfect, I think all sides of the European debate would agree that, just like gravity, we would miss it if it wasn’t there.
Andrea Pappin
executive director
European Movement Ireland
