With Election 2011 coming to a head this week, we at European Movement Ireland thought it might be useful to take the main political parties’ manifestos, pick them apart and see what each of them has to say about Ireland’s role in the EU. We have done this work with a view to improving the quality of the section that deals with the EU in any future Programme for Government that may be negotiated after the election. We have witnessed Programmes for Government where the extent of the dealings with Europe amounts to a bullet pointed paragraph, or at most a page with most points taking a defensive and reactionary position. Not only does this approach unfairly reflect our day-to-day dealings with our EU partners, but it also does not enable our country to avail of and contribute to the opportunities that being in the EU has to offer.

For this review, the manifestos of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, the Greens, Sinn Fein and the United Left Alliance were all reviewed in the interest of representing the full range of attitudes and policy intentions towards the EU. Each manifesto/document was initially searched for references to the EU which were counted. It was then decided whether EU-related references could be considered action points or not, i.e. something that a party committed to act upon if elected into government. Finally, the action points were categorised into different issues and policy areas.

With this manifesto review complete, European Movement Ireland is calling on all political parties to reflect the true extent of Ireland’s relationship with the EU in any new Programme for Government that they may be involved in formulating, by having a more thorough, thoughtful and proactive chapter on Ireland’s role in Europe.

If you would like further detail on all the party manifestos and how they deal with Europe, please read on. Do note that the number beside each party’s name is the number of EU-related action points found in their manifesto.

To download the report (PDF), please click here