„Bardzo martwi mnie ordynarność języka” – mówi premier Irlandii w rozmowie z Euronews
W ekskluzywnym wywiadzie dla Euronews irlandzki Taoiseach Micheál Martin dzieli się obawami dotyczącymi pozycji Węgier w UE, pogorszenia dyskursu publicznego i członkostwa Ukrainy w UE.
CZYTAJ WIĘCEJ : http://pl.euronews.com/2025/05/15/bardzo-martwi-mnie-ordynarnosc-jezyka-mowi-premier-irlandii-w-rozmowie-z-euronews
Zasubskrybuj nasz kanał.Euronews jest dostępny na Dailymotion w 12 językach
W ekskluzywnym wywiadzie dla Euronews irlandzki Taoiseach Micheál Martin dzieli się obawami dotyczącymi pozycji Węgier w UE, pogorszenia dyskursu publicznego i członkostwa Ukrainy w UE.
CZYTAJ WIĘCEJ : http://pl.euronews.com/2025/05/15/bardzo-martwi-mnie-ordynarnosc-jezyka-mowi-premier-irlandii-w-rozmowie-z-euronews
Zasubskrybuj nasz kanał.Euronews jest dostępny na Dailymotion w 12 językach
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Europe Conversation.
00:10My guest this week is Irish Prime Minister Antísog, Michal Martin.
00:14He speaks to me following his first meeting as Prime Minister
00:17with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.
00:20He talks to her about the ongoing trade war with the United States
00:24and what he describes as hell on earth, Gaza.
00:26Michal Martin, Irish Prime Minister and Antísog,
00:31thank you very much for joining us on the Europe Conversation.
00:34You're very welcome. Delighted to be here.
00:36And you met with Ursula von der Leyen, your first time meeting her since becoming Antísog.
00:39Can I ask you, first of all, the EU recently announced potential tariffs against the United States
00:45if there's no resolution to the 90-day negotiation period.
00:48Is Ireland supportive of that?
00:50We're members of the European Union and we appreciate the very measured and strategic approach
00:55that the Commission led by President von der Leyen has taken to date
00:59and we've been supportive of that.
01:01The pathway here has to be one of negotiation.
01:04And we welcome the fact that there's been a degree of engagement between the US administration
01:08and the European Commission on the fundamental issues pertaining to tariffs
01:12and trade overall between the European Union and the United States.
01:17And remember, of course, apart from goods, there's a huge services trade between the US and Europe
01:23and Europe's in deficit on services, surplus on goods.
01:27So on the countermeasures, every member state will have issues with some aspects on that.
01:32But that's inevitable.
01:34We don't want to get to a position where Europe may have to deploy countermeasures.
01:38We, from the outset, don't believe in the imposition of tariffs.
01:42In relation to pharmaceuticals, which make up around 50% of Ireland's exports to the United States,
01:47I mean, that would have a huge impact on the Irish economy.
01:50We have a strong centre of innovative drugs.
01:52We believe, even within Europe, we need to create a good window, an IP window,
01:57to enable companies to get their deserved reward for investment in research and investment in innovation.
02:04So we always have to support innovation.
02:06Now, in terms of any deal, I think the citizen needs access to medicines.
02:13And again, Europe and America have a lot in common here.
02:17And let's just move on, because Ireland is taking the presidency of the European Council in 2026,
02:22and part of that will be negotiating the seven-year EU budget.
02:26There is a very strong consensus that defence and security has to be a key part of that.
02:30Can you see where the trade-offs might be in relation to the budget?
02:34Will there be a reduction, for example, on the Common Agricultural Policy?
02:38Can Ireland see where there may be trade-offs?
02:40Well, Ireland is very focused on the Common Agricultural Policy.
02:44We're focused on research as a key part of our competitiveness agenda within Europe.
02:51I'm a strong believer in research myself and the benefits that flow from it.
02:55We've just discussed pharmaceutical research and the important impact that has had on lives and lifespan.
03:00And so, I think the fundamental question will be how much money will be available.
03:09The need to develop some own resources.
03:11And the fact that most people are looking for more expenditure on different aspects of the budget,
03:16but not as clear on how we produce the revenue to meet the desired expenditure.
03:22And, of course, we have to deal with the next-generation EU, paying back the loans and so on.
03:27Ireland supported that, even though we're net contributors.
03:29We supported, if you like, the big bazooka approach to COVID-19 and the collective approach.
03:35Did Ireland support something like common borrowing for defence?
03:38I think on defence, we accept the inevitability that in terms of the multi-financial framework,
03:44there will be member states who will want some portion of that to be allocated to defence needs.
03:49Ireland has no interest in getting in the way of other countries in terms of their necessities,
03:57their existential sense of having to protect themselves, given the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
04:03That has changed the entire security paradigm in Europe.
04:09Ireland itself understands we have vulnerabilities on cyber security, on subsea cable, and protecting those.
04:17And that's why we're involved in a lot of PESCO projects, or quite a number of PESCO projects on that,
04:21and why we've negotiated an individually tailored programme with NATO on the Partnership for Peace
04:26on those themes of cyber security and subsea cables as well.
04:31And are you concerned about the threat of democracy in Europe at the moment,
04:34when you see the growth of quite hard-right parties, whether it's Germany, all across Europe at the moment,
04:41and also you see certain aspects of it within the White House administration when it comes to freedom of expression due process?
04:49Well, I'm very worried about the coarseness of language in public discourse at the moment, no matter where you go.
04:56Even in Ireland, and social media has facilitated this, this kind of sharp soundbite of hate,
05:03of dismissing everybody if you don't agree with their view, of labelling people and putting people into pigeonholes.
05:11The capacity to have debate, as we're having now, is fast slipping away from the public realm a bit, and that worries me.
05:19Are you concerned about it in the United States, though, or even in Europe?
05:23And even if you look in places like Hungary, the reduction of rights for LGBT communities?
05:27I'm concerned about that in Hungary in terms of the undermining of the LGBTI community, the banning of pride parades.
05:36These are very fundamental issues that Europe has to engage with, the European Union.
05:40And there's a tendency, I look at some of the rhetoric that's emanating from the Hungarian government towards Europe.
05:45I mean, we'll conquer Europe, or we'll take them over, or we'll have a common something.
05:50So all that stuff, I think, is inflaming public opinion in a very negative way.
05:56I mean, most European citizens like the fact that they're part of the European Union.
06:00I said in a speech recently, you know, in the European Union, you know, we have all of that freedom of speech.
06:07We have regulated markets.
06:09We have good standards in food and across the board.
06:13We have stability.
06:14Who wouldn't want to live in an environment like that?
06:18Do you think that you should do more in relation to this?
06:20Yes, and I think also we should do more to provide a positive narrative of what being a member of the European Union means.
06:27Would you like to see maybe Article 7 or other responses?
06:30I think there are many instruments we have.
06:32Article 7 is one.
06:34I think we should pursue all instruments.
06:35I think, you know, we've always accepted unanimity on certain aspects.
06:43We think it's been abused.
06:45And I believe the European Union will not become workable if that abuse continues.
06:51And I think there's only so much member states can take in terms of willful abuse of the veto.
06:57We've seen it play out in Ukraine.
06:58And so there are a number of instruments that we can use and we shouldn't be afraid to use them.
07:04In Ukraine, Ireland is obviously very supportive of enlargement and Ukraine becoming an EU member state.
07:10Do you think that's going to be possible, seeing as that it's all blocked at the moment?
07:13It's outrageous what's going on at the moment.
07:15In my view, it's essential that Ukraine becomes a member of the European Union for geopolitical reasons.
07:21And I think Europe probably missed opportunities over the last decade or two in terms of the Western Balkans as well.
07:28And I'd like to see, you know, Montenegro and North Macedonia and other states in the Western Baltics in due course become members also.
07:36And I've been an advocate of this for quite some time.
07:40But it seems that people are exploiting the mechanisms of the veto and so on.
07:45As in Viktor Orl in Hungary.
07:47Yeah, unreasonably, in my view. Unreasonably.
07:49Europe has made a lot of attempts to try and unblock these issues to inmediation and engagement.
07:56And likewise, you know, in terms of the EPF, the European Peace Facility as well, has slowed down Ireland's contribution to Ukraine.
08:08We contributed non-lethal finance to that.
08:11It hasn't been able to be utilised and so on.
08:14Now we're doing it bilaterally.
08:15One area that you have been at odds with the EU consensus is in relation to Israel and Gaza.
08:22And earlier, before, you've criticised Israel for committing war crimes, be it starvation and so on.
08:29Tell us about your engagement with Ursula von der Leyen in relation to that.
08:33It's quite shocking what is now happening within Gaza.
08:38To have an effective blockade for 50 days and more, 60 days maybe now, in terms of food, in terms of the essentials of life, the bare necessities of life, in my view, must be considered a war crime.
08:52And I don't say that easily.
08:54I want the resolution.
08:56We want the restoration of the ceasefire.
08:58We want the release of all hostages.
08:59In my view, it was shocking to take people as hostages.
09:02These were innocent people at a concert in their kibbutz.
09:06I went to kibbutz Beirut myself to see at first hand the impact of the horrific Hamas attack on Israel.
09:14And that was shocking and horrible.
09:17And I've condemned it from the outset.
09:19And I went there to show empathy with the people who had been attacked.
09:22So all those, I mean, the hostages should have been released a long time ago.
09:24But the war that has been waged in response, in my view, has lost any moral compass at this stage in terms of its unacceptable impact on the civilian population and on children.
09:37And in Ireland, there's real desperate sadness now and horror and a sense of helplessness at what we see in our TV screens of young children on stretchers in hospitals, very badly injured, many families being wiped out, kids being orphaned.
09:56From a humanity point of view, it's beyond comprehension and what's happening now in terms of a doubling down by Israel in terms of occupation and intensification of the war on the ground.
10:08They've bombed hospitals.
10:10And I know that Israel will say, well, Hamas are in the hospitals and so forth.
10:13Like, kids need a basic access to medicine.
10:16Many externally funded hospitals from international organizations or indeed from other countries have been bombed.
10:25Life has been, I mean, humanitarian workers have been murdered in terms of Red Crescent and so on that we saw recently.
10:32And I think the weaponization of the very basic necessities of life, from my perspective, is a breach of humanitarian law.
10:42And I think that raises very significant issues for us then for Europe in terms of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the human rights clauses that are part of that.
10:53And so there has to be a discussion of that now.
10:56But when we look back at this moment, obviously the EU being a union of international law, what will you say about Europe's response?
11:05That is my core point.
11:06I think this is fundamental to Europe and to the European Union and what we stand for.
11:10And, you know, we have communicated to other countries around the world in terms of Ukraine and the violation of its territorial integrity.
11:18A different war and the situation in the Middle East, I accept fully the complexities and all of that.
11:24But it's the unacceptable level of death and destruction and displacement.
11:32And it is, it is, many people have said it, going back to 2011, it's hell on earth.
11:37And it really poses the most fundamental of questions to the European Union in terms of our values and what we're prepared to stand up for.
11:48Okay, Micheál Martin, Prime Minister of Ireland and Taoiseach, thank you very much for joining us on the Europe Conversation.
11:53Very welcome indeed, yeah, thank you.
11:54Thank you.