Niall Collins
Question:93. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Taoiseach if Sudan was raised during the recent EU-League of Arab States summit in Egypt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10667/19]
View answerTuesday, 5 March 2019
Questions (93)
Written answers
I attended the first ever Summit-level meeting between the EU and the League of Arab States, which took place in Sharm El Sheik on 24 and 25 February.
At the meeting, leaders agreed to deepen Arab-European ties to enhance the stability, prosperity, and well-being of the two regions. We also agreed that stronger regional cooperation is important if we are to find solutions to common challenges such as migration, and we committed to working more closely together to address the root causes of terrorism and to continue joint efforts to combat foreign terrorist fighters.
A number of regional issues were discussed, with leaders reaffirming their common positions on the Middle East Peace Process and their commitment to reaching a two-state solution. Leaders also had thorough discussions on ways to achieve political solutions in Syria, Libya and Yemen in line with relevant UN resolutions.
While Sudan was not formally on the agenda, in our discussions and in the Statement that issued from the Summit we renewed our commitment to effective multilateralism and to an international system based on international law in order to tackle global challenges, including through increased cooperation between the LAS, EU, the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU). In particular, we reiterated that reaching political solutions to the regional crises, in accordance with international law, including international humanitarian law, is key to achieving the peace and prosperity that the people of the region need and deserve.
The Government is concerned about the current situation in Sudan, in particular the Sudanese authorities’ heavy-handed response to protests, which began late last year.
Measures announced under the newly declared state of emergency create a permissive climate for the security services to act with impunity against peaceful protesters, and this is not conducive to creating the national consensus needed to resolve Sudan's deep political and economic crisis.