Cork councillors appointed to European Union Committee of Regions

Two Cork councillors have been appointed to the prestigious European Union Committee of the Regions and will be taking up their position alongside their counterparts from across the 27 member states in the new year, it has been confirmed.

Eileen Lynch of Fine Gael, who is an elected member of Cork County Council in the Macroom Municipal District, and Gillian Coughlan, the Bandon-based Fianna Fáil councillor, were appointed alongside seven other members from Ireland.

Ms Lynch and Ms Coughlan will begin their terms officially in February of next year and will serve for five years. There are six plenary sessions per year but each member will also be invited to join two commissions which will also involve regular meetings in the EU.

There are 329 members on the body and they represent more than 1.1 million elected representatives across the EU’s 27 member states, including councillors, mayors and regional assembly members.

According to former Lord Mayor of Cork, Kieran McCarthy, who is an outgoing member, 80% of EU legislation gets filtered back to local government which, he feels, underlines the importance of the Committee of the Regions which, although it has a purely consultative role, has an important say in the drafting and consideration of EU laws.

Eileen Lynch, a former Secretary General of the European Peoples’ Party, welcomed her appointment to the body and described it as “an exciting opportunity to bring the concerns and aspirations of our local communities to a European level, ensuring that Ireland’s voice is heard in crucial policy debates that will shape our future”.

“It is consultative but they give a lot of feedback in terms of cohesion and investment policy across Europe and it’s also a learning platform in so far as you’re meeting with all these councillors from across Europe to see what they’re doing in their cities and what’s working,” she said.

Gillian Coughlan is an alternate member of the Committee of the Regions at present and becomes a full member in the next term. She had been sharing responsibility with a full member in this mandate and has a good grasp of what it entails and, from the vantage point of her alternate member status, she was able to see the growing far right movement in Eastern and Central Europe in response to increasing numbers of immigrants to the EU.

“I could see that wave coming across Europe towards us and we need to be prepared our democratic institutions against the onslaught I see whereby individual rights are being encroached upon in the name of the State.

“I think the European project needs to be defended and protected for peace on our continent.”

While Ms Coughlan acknowledged that discussing these types of issues were a far cry from the work of an elected member on Cork County Council engaging on issues such as the state of local roads, she said that councillors in other parts of the EU often express how they are made feel marginalised in a similar way to opinions expressed by councillors in County Hall or City Hall.

“The same issues arise, particularly like broadband in rural areas across the European Union where there are huge blackspots of broadband coverage, roads in place like the Baltic countries.”

Current Lord Mayor of Cork, Dan Boyle, is currently a full member of the body but will serve as an alternate in the new term.