Senator Alice-Mary Higgins is one of four Oireachtas delegates to the Conference on the Future of Europe, an eight month process that hopes to shape the next chapter for the EU. Speaking at a plenary of the Conference last Saturday, Senator Higgins highlighted:
“On so many issues like equality and environment, people have been speaking up for some time and institutions have been slow to hear. Too often civil society voices have felt drowned out by corporate lobbies.”
“This process is a chance to listen to not just the ideas but to the priorities of EU citizens. Human rights are a priority. The EU’s role in driving forward workers’ rights, women’s rights, disability rights, LGBT rights is something people are proud of and that they care about. When rights and solidarity were pushed aside under austerity that damaged trust. We need to strengthen that now through a new Social Progress Protocol and through an EU that steps up and shows leadership on international rights, including the rights of refugees and the new right to a healthy environment. The EU should not be blocking a TRIPS waiver on global vaccine access.”
Senator Higgins also noted
“Action on climate, biodiversity and the SDGs by 2030 is a clear priority for citizens across Europe, and that will require major public investment, just transition and strong policies. Those policies, including an exit from fossil fuels, must not be undermined or chilled by corporate courts, that can choose to ignore the European Court of Justice. This is also a rule of law issue.”
Concluding her speech in Strasbourg, Senator Higgins emphasised that
“The conversation on Europe’s future must be deeper and much more diverse. These are the decisions we make about how we live together and how we protect our future life on this shared planet and in this shared EU and in each of our communities.”
Senator Higgins is calling on people across Ireland to help shape these important decisions.
“The Conference on the Future of Europe could be an important turning point for the EU. The political, economic, social and environmental issues agreed at EU level affect all of our lives. It is vital that people and organisations concerned about these issues make their voice heard via the Conference’s digital platform or by organising an event of their own, online or in person.”
As the 25th Seanad convenes today, eleven senators have joined forces to put forward long-delayed reforms to Seanad Éireann and in particular, to radically overhaul how elections to the upper house of the Oireachtas are conducted.
Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins has said “there is an urgent moral responsibility on the Irish Government to support a Trade and Intellectual Property Rules (TRIPS) waiver and publicly press the European Commission to vote in favour of that TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting on April 30th”.
A TRIPS waiver would allow for the sharing of the intellectual property for COVID-19 vaccines. The proposal has been supported by NGOs such as Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontieres.