Celebrating Europe

On 9 May, Commissioner McGuinness gave a speech in Dublin to mark Europe Day and Ireland’s 50 years of EU membership. She began by looking back briefly at the history of the EU, reflecting on the achievements – and the setbacks – and looking forward, to where we are heading. In a speech that touched on a number of different issues, Ms McGuinness talked about progress being made in banking and the financial system: Banking Union and the Capital Markets Union, crypto, a possible digital euro, sustainable finance... She also looked more broadly at how the EU has tackled the Covid pandemic, Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, and Brexit which – although it was an existential crisis for Europe – has, she said, brought the EU27 closer together and made them more united.

Read the full speech here