There many reasons to be thankful tonight: first for the warmth of your applause
but also for the opportunity I had tonight to see many, many old friends,
many people who have shared important times for Europe. I'm thankful for the
opportunity I have to celebrate Peter Sutherland's legacy, and I'm truly
humbled and grateful to be receiving the Sutherland award, and I would like to
think that Peter would have recognised my own work and his as sharing a common
spirit, and being united in pursuit of the same goals to ensure that the
considerable benefits of economic, financial, and trade openness among
nations were matched by robust institutions
that kept markets open but safe. This is because openness indeed creates
opportunities. It gives people access to new markets and allows consumers to buy
new products, but it also comes with risks: It exposes people to potential
threats such as unfair competition or unsafe products from abroad,
delocalisation and many of the social problems we are seeing today. Rightly,
Peter also strived to apply these same principles at the global level in
setting up the WTO, which was without doubt one of his greatest triumphs. The
single market has not unraveled but rather a chain of gradual improvements
has been set in motion to make the market fairer and more resilient.
One such example is the Euro itself which was created to prevent competitive
devaluations that might undermine trust in open trade amongst other reasons why
it was created. This helped Europe to avoid the kind of trade tensions we are
seeing globally today, which are motivated partly by claims of unfair
currency competition. Another example is the banking union which was set up to
mitigate the harmful spill overs from open finance revealed by the crisis and
to prevent the single financial market from fragmenting again when placed under
stress. Now, the challenge for Europe is to extend this logic to complete in
economic and monetary union more broadly. In particular, finishing banking union
and deepening fiscal union. Progress will inevitably be slow and
hotly debated but the evolution from single market to single currency to
single banking and fiscal union is in reality a logical extension of the
aspiration in Europe to make openness among nations sustainable and I believe
that at some point this sequence will be looked back as inescapable and
self-evident, just as the decision to build a single European market is now. I
say this not just as a convinced European for all those who are committed
to free but fair markets you should want Europe to succeed. The European project
is proof that countries can have at once the benefits of open trade without its
worst excesses. But for Europe to continue to show in the face of new
challenges that markets and justice can go together, it must provide a
fair and effective common house for its members: One where countries share
sovereignty to regain sovereignty, always faithful to Europe's founding values of
peace freedom and democracy. Thank you.
There's a line in a lot of movies where someone says
'You know what, there's things bigger than both of us.' Twelve-and-a-half
years ago in a rather more optimistic time, I was at Westminster to
hear the former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern make an historic speech to the joint
Houses of Parliament, during which he stressed his commitment to a plural and
inclusive future for the island of Ireland. As he put it that day, Ireland's
hour has come: A time of peace and prosperity of the old values and new
beginnings. A dozen years later having witnessed the depth of the divisions
uncovered by Brexit, I find myself confronted on a daily basis by the
reality that all values and new opportunities are not natural bedfellows.
And the squaring that particular circle rook
raised a lot of difficult questions, and from time to time requires us to
make some extremely tough choices. By way of example as you've just heard my
present role at Westminster involves chairing a parliamentary select
committee looking at the relationship between digital technologies and
democracy - How can the former be encouraged to support, rather than
undermine the latter? How do those old values sometimes incongruously
incorporated in today's form of representative democracy align
with the enabling opportunities offered by our new digital world. Now this is a
conundrum being faced by free societies everywhere, and in the present we seem long on
questions and somewhat short on answers. I think at the core of our bewilderment
lies the issue of trust the golden mean that at least offers one degree of
certainty in our lives as we've all discovered trust is hard to
win but incredibly easy to lose. And it's surely something more than just a nice
to have I spent my adult life as a filmmaker and
an educator so allow if I may to tell a story that I think combines the two:
Several years ago I was asked to open a brand new school in the Northeast
of England. There was emphasis then on building schools for the future that policy
intended to deliver. As I walked through the impressive glass atrium to
cut the ribbon, I looked up and in letters of fire were the words, 'If it's
not true, don't say it. If it's not right, don't do it.' - Marcus Aurelius. The
principal saw me gazing at it and said, 'oh, that's our school motto, we
take that very seriously here.' On the train back to London I couldn't get the
image out of my head. I kept thinking how is it possible that we have struggled so hard
to conform to a simple rubric handed down by a Roman politician over two-and-
a-half thousand years ago. It's not as though it's a particularly complicated
thought. Now I'm no Pollyanna, but when a number of years later I first heard it
suggested that we've moved into a post-truth era, I was genuinely horrified. Truth and
trust being two sides of exactly the same coin, it's difficult to see how we
can help young people address the challenges of the 21st century without a
thorough re-examination of what it really means to trust one another.
Because in truth I see the emergence of very few solutions but an
ever-increasing number of seemingly insurmountable questions - all the more
reason why we in Ireland have to seek our own place in the world and I'm
entirely convinced that we will. Lastly I need to explain why in addition to
receiving this honour, this particular week is of special importance to
myself and my family: Exactly 30 years ago we arrived to celebrate our first Christmas
in West Cork. 60 years ago tomorrow, I walked my then-girlfriend home from the
school dance and asked her to go steady with me. A great joy of my life being
that she still is with me here this evening.
and finally, as Enda very generously said, here today in Dublin, we finalised our
citizenship application so you understand that when I say thank you
this evening is in every respect a very very important one in our lives thank
you very much indeed