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GAZETTE
JUNE 1992
Uni f ied Germany 's
Role in Europe
At the Law Society's Annual
Conference in Berlin, two speakers,
the former Attorney General and EC
Commissioner, Peter Sutherland SC,
and the Irish Ambassador to
Germany, His Excellency Padraig
Murphy, offered insights to the role
Germany had played in the
development of the EC and what the
unified Germany's role would be in
Europe. Extracts from their
addresses are published below.
"All we have
is
the law"
In his address to the conference,
Peter Sutherland
traced the
significant contribution that
Germany had made to the
development of the European
Community. " It was Conrad
Adenauer who had pursued the issue
of the sharing of national
sovereignty - and the generosity
that that involved in terms of
people's attitudes to other people -
which gave birth to the coal and
steel community and later the TVeaty
of Rome and the development of the
EC. It was President Halstein, a
German who was the first president
of the European Commission, who
made the comment "we do not have
divisions, all we have is the law".
This concept of the rule of law has
underpinned and created the
structure which has allowed the
European Community to develop. Its
evolution was based on a perspective
that did not envisage nationhood or
nationality as causes to be
aggressively propounded. Rather the
founders saw the Community as
being based on a certain sense of
self respect and also respect for the
identity of others combined with a
recognition of the possibility of
creating a supra national fusion. The
German contribution to the
development of the Community was
therefore significantly based on law.
Indeed it is the principle of the
supremacy of Community law which
is the essence of what the EC is
about.
Mr. Sutherland said the fundamental
issue facing the Community - and it
was a political issue - was the
sharing of sovereignty and the right
of the Community to override
national legislation in the common
good and in the context of agreed
objectives. The fundamental objective
therefore was to bring about a more
integrated Community. An example
of the history of this process and of
the practical implications of it could
be seen in terms of the relationship
between Ireland and Germany. "The
fact is that we have 155 German
manufacturing companies in Ireland,
our exports to are double that of our
imports from Germany. Additionally
we have had an enormous increase in
terms of the numbers of German
people who visit Ireland; some
200,000 German people visited
Ireland during the course of the last
year. I do not attribute all of this to
the fact that we are part of the same
Community but I do say that the
Community is an essential part of a
process of bringing people together
which is important not merely in
social terms but in economic terms."
EC at turning point
Mr. Sutherland said that he believed
that the Community was at a turning
point and probably at the most
perilous moment in terms of its own
development. " I f one looks at the
history of the EEC, the first period
up to 1973 was the period when the
basic legal principles were set down
and some of the basic policies such
as the Common Agricultural Policy
were developed. Between 1973 and
1985 we had the two oil shocks.
During this time there was not a
great deal of movement in structural
or constitutional terms in the
development of the EC. Then in the
latter half of 1984 and the launching
of the 1992 process, we started into a
new, very dynamic period of
development. In 1986 we had the
Single European Act bringing about
constitutional change for the first
time since the TVeaty of Rome by
introducing more majority voting and
by increasing the competence of some
Community institutions. The 1992
process therefore not only created a
new economic momentum but also a
legal momentum. In the economic
area, in 1985 there remained 283
pieces of legislation requiring
adoption to complete the internal
market. Seventy-one are now in
operation and another 213 are fully
adopted and have yet to come into
force. Many of these 213 will come
into force on 1 January of next year.
Thken together they will transform
our economic environment. Free
movement of goods, capital, services
and people is a radical societal change,
which by reason of ostensible
gradualism of introduction is not now
seen for what it is. In fact, in historic
terms what has been achieved has
taken place at an incredibly rapid
pace.
"Why therefore, does one look to the
future with some degree of concern?
Events are changing so rapidly before
our eyes that it is very difficult to
know what is around the corner.
When we had an Iron Curtain there
were confines within which Europe,
and the Community, had to exist.
There was not the problem of large-
scale enlargement with its potential to
dilute what the essence of the
Community is. The removal of the
Iron Curtain has led to a list of
countries applying for membership.
Today Austria, Sweden, Finland,
Malta and Cyprus are among those
actually applying for membership. I
think that the next country to apply
will be Switzerland. This is going to
lead to huge strain because it is going
to require further constitutional
change. Will Ireland be left with a
Commissioner at the end of this, for
example? Will the Community have
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