Alan Kelly
Question:11. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the special European Council meeting on 1 October 2020. [28350/20]
View answerWednesday, 7 October 2020
Questions (11)
Oral answers (5 contributions)
I attended a special meeting of the European Council in Brussels on 1 and 2 October at which we discussed the health and economic impacts of Covid-19 and agreed the need to strengthen our co-ordination especially as regards the development and distribution of a vaccine at European Union level. The response to Covid-19 also formed part of our consideration of our agenda item on the Single Market, industrial and digital policy. The Single Market will be a strong driver of our economic recovery with the twin pillars of the green and digital transformations helping us to foster new forms of growth, cohesion and convergence while strengthening the European Union's resilience.
On the second day of our meeting, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, provided an update on the Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom. This followed a bilateral meeting I had with her on 1 October when we discussed the state of play of these negotiations. We agreed that for any deal on the future relationship to be possible, the United Kingdom would have to work to restore the trust of all European Union member states by implementing the withdrawal agreement fully and in good faith.
The Commission began the process of infringement proceedings against the United Kingdom on that day. Then I shared my assessment on the current state of play on the remaining prospects for a free trade deal to be agreed in the period ahead and on the importance of sustained and positive progress on implementing the protocol.
The European Council also discussed a number of important external relations issues. We considered European Union relations with Turkey and emphasised the need for a stable and secure environment in the eastern Mediterranean. We again considered the situation in Belarus which we had also discussed by video conference in August and we agreed targeted sanctions.
We had a broad discussion on European Union and China relations, covering our economic and trade relationship but also calling on China to assume greater responsibility in dealing with global challenges, including climate change and multilateral responses to Covid-19. We also expressed serious concern about the human rights situation in China.
We called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh where there has been an escalation of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We also condemned the assassination attempt of Alexei Navalny in Russia and agreed to return to this matter at our next meeting on 15 and 16 October.
While in Brussels, I took the opportunity on Friday to meet with the commissioner-designate Mairead McGuinness who earlier that day had her hearing before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, ECON, of the European Parliament.
The Taoiseach shared his assessment of Brexit developments with EU leaders last week. Next week's budget is being prepared on a no-deal basis. Will the Taoiseach share with us the key outcome of that meeting and his discussions with Ursula von der Leyen?
Was there any agreement on taking action against Belarus? It appears to us in the Labour Party that the European Union has been very slow to speak strongly and with one voice about the rise of unrest across Europe and the rise of right-wing, almost neo-fascist, sentiment throughout the European Continent and within the European Union.
The Taoiseach will be aware of a high-profile campaign, the 400 Welcomes campaign, which calls for the relocation of 400 refugees after a fire which took place at the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos in Greece which affected over 13,000 refugees. Ireland has agreed to take 50. The Taoiseach will agree we could do an awful lot more, given our history. We are the people of Famine ships and immigration which has seen us settle all over the world. We know famine and we know sectarian violence and have fled from it. As part of our historical national moral obligation, we should look at the situation in this camp in Greece and accept the fact that taking 50, while welcome, is not anywhere near enough. Will the Taoiseach, along with the various Ministers with responsibility for this, consider increasing that number to 400? It is expected of us internationally to live up to our own history and moral responsibility. I think the Taoiseach will agree we should do more.
I wanted to bring up Lesbos and the call that we would take 400 of those who are being evacuated after the fires there. We should consider seriously doing that. As awful and harsh as the situation we face with Covid-19 is, these are people who are fleeing absolutely appalling situations, who have been driven from their homes and live in appalling conditions in holding camps in Lesbos. We need to put out the hand of support. It is very much in line with the tradition of this country as a people who side with the oppressed and the downtrodden. We should bear in mind our own history of exile in that regard.
On the economic and fiscal considerations of the EU relating to Covid-19, the Government in refusing our request, to date at least, to restore the pandemic unemployment payment has cited fiscal concerns.
I want to be clear on this because I met representatives from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council yesterday at the Committee on Budgetary Oversight, and they made clear that the normal restraints of the fiscal treaty are off the table and do not impact the situation. In fact, they argued strongly that as long as the situation remained uncertain and there were high levels of unemployment as a result of restrictions, income subsidies should be maintained and it would be good to put as much money into the economy as possible. I asked explicitly whether the council would have a problem from a fiscal point of view if we restored the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the PUP, and the representatives basically said they had no problem with that and there was no fiscal difficulty because of the current extraordinary situation and the ability to borrow money cheaply. They were sanguine about the issue of debt. The Taoiseach should bear that in mind and consider what they are saying in terms of PUP restoration.
I add my voice to the 400 Welcomes appeal. Globally, we are living through difficult, chaotic and, for some, catastrophic times but none more so than for those people who have lost everything and have fled to look for the shelter of international law and the decency of the international community. The Irish people are more than fit to rise to that obligation and challenge. I would also like that the number of 50 be reviewed and that we demonstrate the genuine capacity and spirit of generosity that is a mark of Irish people.
I thank the Deputies. They caught me by surprise there. I thought there might be more.
Deputy Ó Ríordáin was first regarding the position on Brexit. It was a brief discussion. I met the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the Thursday. It was a very good meeting. She reaffirmed EU support for Ireland on Brexit and emphasised the importance of getting an overall agreement. The following day, President von der Leyen spoke to the Council and summarised how she saw the state of play in negotiations. I was then given the opportunity to make observations from the Irish perspective. There was one other contribution after that because it was not a general discussion on Brexit and we will return to that next week.
The Commission President indicated to me and the Council that she would be speaking to the British Prime Minister over the weekend. That has happened and I spoke to the Commission President again over the weekend. We had a good discussion on the phone. There has been agreement on both sides to intensify discussions between the UK and the EU. There are significant challenges on the level playing field, fisheries, which is a difficult issue, and governance, that is, what arrangement will be arrived at to ensure any agreement finalised, if one was finalised, would be adhered to. We have had an issue with trust being eroded in the context of the withdrawal agreement and the Ireland and Northern Ireland protocol. That is the position. As of now, those talks are intensifying and the President of the Commission and the British Prime Minister have agreed to keep in close contact to oversee the talks and make sure momentum continues in them.
On Belarus, the meeting was successful in that it broke the logjam on an issue between Cyprus and Turkey. Cyprus had withheld its position in agreeing sanctions on Belarus, pending a resolution of the issue around the eastern Mediterranean and Turkey in particular. The issue concerns Turkey drilling in disputed Cypriot and Greek waters, which is an infringement of their sovereignty. That issue took up a lot of time at the meeting. It got resolved with conclusions, which will result in constructive mediation processes opening up that had started between Turkey and Greece and will now embrace Cyprus as well, utilising the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, with a view to arriving at a proper basis for a more satisfactory relationship between Turkey and the EU into the future. That facilitated unanimity on Belarus and it was agreed at the meeting to impose restrictive measures and sanctions, including an asset ban and travel restrictions, on 40 individuals in leadership positions in Belarus. EU leaders strongly condemn the indiscriminate detentions, harassment, intimidation and ill-treatment that continue in Belarus despite repeated calls for them to stop. I am glad we managed to get unanimity on it and get that out as quick as we could. There was no hesitation on the sentiment of the EU position on Belarus. To be fair to Cyprus, it has real issues around what is happening in the relationship with Turkey and it felt these needed to be addressed by the Council.
On Lesbos, it has been agreed to take 50 refugees. People say they want us to take more. I share the concerns for the trauma people have gone through and the need to help them but we must make sure those we take in are properly and comprehensively looked after in all aspects of their self-development and life and so on. That is something I am keen on. I will talk to the Minister on it again following the representations that have been made here and the moral responsibility people have articulated that we as a country should take on in respect of this very difficult situation. I know those involved want to make sure we do this properly and comprehensively for the longer term in terms of looking after those we take into our care and supervision.
On the economic and fiscal situation and the fiscal council, that is one aspect of the issue and we are spending an unprecedented amount. We are borrowing close to the middle twenty billions. I do not know what the final figure will be. As we are moving to level 3 now, a significant increase in the PUP was anticipated at today’s oversight group meeting between the different Departments. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection suggests there could be 40,000 to 50,000 additional applicants by the end of the week. There was a significant increase of 11,000 applicants at the close of business last night, which compares strongly to a norm of between 1 million and 2 million claims. We want to make it sustainable and we are extending the scheme. We want to look at other supports as well. It is also about fairness. There are people who lost their jobs prior to the pandemic who were never on the PUP but are on the jobseeker’s allowance. A total of 213,000 people get the basic allowance. There are issues there, to be fair to those, as well. There are carers and so on that people spoke about.
Deputy McDonald also spoke about the 400 Welcomes appeal and I think I have addressed that in my reply.
Written Answers are published on the Oireachtas website.