Pat Cox MEP has raised questions about the motives behind the Attorney General's recent criticisms of the European Union. Michael McDowell, the Attorney General, told the Institute of European Affairs that there was a widespread perception in Ireland that the European Union was moving in a direction that caused deep unease.
The Attorney General was also critical of those who sought the development of a federalist European state. He said that these proposals were not coming from the people but from a narrow class of elected and unelected activist office holders.
Mr Cox, the leader of the European Liberal Democrats, was asked about the speech on RTÉ radio today. The MEP said: "Mr McDowell is a man who thrives on the oxygen of publicity and it's quite clear he was suffering from some kind of oxygen starvation recently... I certainly think he is a man who is no stranger to headlines." Mr Cox said that he was not surprised to hear that Mr McDowell was not in favour of European federalism.
The MEP sounded a note of caution in relation to the language used in debates on the EU. He commented: "[Mr McDowell] said, in his judgement, that different federalists who want a 'superstate' do themselves little justice and no favours, and I quote him, 'by portraying those who do not agree with them as moral and intellectual untermenschen'.
"And he goes on later to criticise Germans who want a federation. Let me just remind the Irish people untermenschen is that phrase about sub-humans used during the Nazi era when they sent people to death camps. When you're the chief law officer of a state …. in a speech where you're taking on views including views that come from a state that is now profoundly modern in its democracy, I think you've got to be very careful in selecting words with ugly echoes.
"And there are bits like that which to my mind suggest that even if we want a robust debate we should be very, very careful about the terms that we choose to employ when we come into that debate and most especially key people in Government."
