Ireland and the European Union
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Ireland and the European Union
11.02.2011

UCC’s Department of Government will host a one-day participative conference on ‘Brussels and us: the big black hole of democracy’ tomorrow Saturday (February 12th 2011). This conference is specifically geared at engaging young people and has attracted participants from all over the country, from NUI Maynooth, University College Dublin, Dublin College University and University Limerick.

The conference will focus on three key issues relating to the development of the European Union and the place of Ireland within it:

This conference originates in the facts that a majority of young people voted against the Lisbon treaty: 55% of 18 to 24 year olds and 59% of 25 to 34 year olds voted No to the first referendum. “This was a resounding dismissal by young people of the most significant European treaty since the 1992 Maastricht treaty, which laid the path to the creation of the Eurozone. The media and politicians interpreted it as a consequence of a poorly informed electorate”, said Conference Organiser, Dr Emmanuelle Schon-Quinlivan, Department of Government, UCC.

Simon Coveney, TD and Honorary President of the Government and Politics Society, has kindly agreed to open the conference at 10.30am and launch the debates. The event will be structured around a plenary session in the morning with three speakers:

Professor Ben Tonra from UCD, Jean Monnet Professor of European Foreign, Security and Defence Policy and a leading expert the democratic deficit in relation to foreign policy.
Ms Ann Cahill , Europe correspondent with the Irish Examiner, who was heard by the joint Oireachtas Committee in advance of the second Lisbon referendum on the perceived democratic deficit in the European Union.
Dr Paul Gillespie, columnist for The Irish Times and former foreign policy editor.
Professor Neil Collins , Dean of the Faculty of Commerce and Head of the Department of Government, will chair the morning session.

In the afternoon, participants will be divided into workshops where the speakers will engage with them and discuss their concerns as well as recommendations. The interest in the conference has been genuinely high; but it is the opportunity of discussion without judgement or criticism in smaller groups while interacting with the speakers which seems to be the attraction. Young people are eager to learn about the EU if they are also given the opportunity to express themselves. Those views will be compiled into a report by Dr Schön-Quinlivan and will be sent to the Department for Foreign Affairs.

The conference takes place on Saturday, February 12th 2011, Room 212, O'Rahilly Building.  Enquiries: E.Schon@ucc.ie



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