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European Council

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 July 2021

Wednesday, 7 July 2021

Questions (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)

Brendan Smith

Question:

11. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach the outcome of discussions at the recent European Council concerning EU relations with Russia. [34647/21]

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Brendan Smith

Question:

12. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Taoiseach the outcome of discussions at the recent European Council regarding the Northern Ireland protocol. [34648/21]

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Neale Richmond

Question:

13. Deputy Neale Richmond asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the most recent European Council meeting. [34658/21]

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Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

14. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the European Council meeting of 24 and 25 June 2021. [34761/21]

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Alan Kelly

Question:

15. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the recent European Council meeting. [36197/21]

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Seán Haughey

Question:

16. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent European Council. [36369/21]

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Oral answers (11 contributions)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 16, inclusive, together.

I attended a meeting of the European Council on 24 and 25 June in Brussels. The agenda covered Covid-19, economic recovery, migration, Turkey and the situation in the eastern Mediterranean, relations with Russia, Ethiopia and a number of other external relations issues. We also discussed the fundamental values of the European Union, including LGBTI equality and non-discrimination.

Our meeting began with an exchange of views with United Nations Secretary General, Mr. António Guterres, at which the importance of good co-operation between the European Union and the United Nations was discussed.

On Covid-19, we welcomed the good progress on vaccination roll-out while stressing the need to remain vigilant and co-ordinated regarding the emergence of variants of concern. We reaffirmed our commitment to vaccine sharing.

We also had a first discussion on a lessons learned report prepared by the Commission. European Union leaders reviewed the implementation of the European Union's Next Generation recovery plan. We welcomed the timely entry into force of the own resources decision and endorsed the draft Council recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area. We also met in euro summit format to discuss the economic challenges facing the euro area and reviewed progress on the banking union and capital markets union.

We discussed migration on the various routes and agreed to continue to co-operate with countries of origin and transit. We resumed discussion on relations with Russia and reaffirmed the European Union's commitment to a united, long-term and strategic approach based on the five guiding principles. We welcomed the implementation of sanctions on Belarus. Leaders reiterated the European Union's readiness to engage with Turkey in a phased, proportionate and reversible manner, subject to Turkish actions. We also adopted conclusions on Mali and Libya and condemned the ongoing atrocities and rights violations in Ethiopia's Tigray region. We condemned recent malicious cyberactivities against member states, including Ireland.

I also took the opportunity to discuss implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol and developments in Northern Ireland with a number of European Union colleagues.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. It is important that at every European Council the EU make clear to the Russian leadership the need for it to demonstrate a clear political commitment to stop actions against the EU and its member states and, importantly, against third countries east of the European Union. We need full implementation of the Minsk agreements. It is important that the EU intensify its co-operation with eastern partners. I can well appreciate that at this time EU enlargement is not a priority due to so many other pressing issues, but it is one that should be advanced as incrementally as possible.

In that context, and from a national point of view, I welcome the expansion of the Irish global footprint, particularly with the opening of the Irish embassy in Ukraine. I hope that the Taoiseach will be able to give a commitment in the not-too-distant future to open an embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. That would be very important. Ukraine and Georgia have suffered from occupation by Russia and human rights violations. It is not acceptable. These days we have non-military warfare with cyberattacks, disinformation and propaganda. All these issues need to be tackled because they are continuous series of aggressions.

The Northern Ireland protocol is very important. I represent two of the southern Ulster counties. Much of their business is cross-Border and many of our companies are interdependent, as is the economy, North and South. The EU must continue to honour its agreement but we also must ensure that the greatest efforts are made to remove all obstacles to trade because any disruption to trade in Northern Ireland disrupts the economy throughout the entire country.

My colleague, Deputy Brady, made a presentation to the European Parliament standing delegation for relations with Palestine last week to brief parliamentarians from across the EU on the Dáil motion on the annexation of Palestinian lands by Israel. Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory also attended. Ireland is recognised for the role it played in the anti-apartheid campaign during the 1980s. There is an urgent need for a similar campaign now in response to Israel's apartheid policies. The Human Rights Watch report, A Threshold Crossed, starkly documents how Israeli authorities methodically privilege Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. It states: "Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy." Palestinians are dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated and subjugated by virtue of their identity, all of which amounts to crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. The Taoiseach has stated on a number of occasions that the occupied territories Bill banning trade with illegal settlements in the occupied territories is not compatible with European law; others disagree. Will the Taoiseach provide the Government's legal advice or at least commit to providing the points of European law which he has been advised are incompatible with the legislation?

The European digital green certificate is due to come into operation on 19 July. It is a moving issue on which a significant number of people anxiously wait for news of its delivery To keep people updated, will the Taoiseach tell the House whether the timelines will be met? Will it be paper-based? When will these start to be posted out? Will it be Monday? I will not hold him to it but what percentage of people does he expect will have them next week, before 19 July? There will be issues, but does he predict that a large number of people will receive them next week?

My next question relates to long Covid at European level. In late 2020, the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE, published guidelines on and recommendations for long Covid care. On 6 May, the European Commission announced plans to back a new generation of improved Covid treatments, especially for people suffering long Covid. Was this considered by the European Council? This is an issue that will have to be dealt with on an ongoing basis. The longer term health impacts have been completely underestimated. Has this been acknowledged at European level? Has there been discussion on what will be done about it and about treatments? How will it even be defined? This is an entirely new issue. Has it been recognised and discussed at European level?

Nobody can say the Taoiseach is not accountable to this House on his participation at European Council meetings. In the past two weeks, there have been pre-European Council statements, post-European Council statements and today there are further parliamentary questions.

Will he give the House further information on his discussions with the Romanian president on plans to purchase 1 million Covid-19 mRNA vaccines from Romania? I understand there is an agreement in principle to purchase. What developments have since taken place? When might the vaccines arrive here? What are the logistical issues to be worked through? Have the authorities in Denmark been contacted to see how their purchase is working out for them? What other EU states have been contacted regarding the purchase of vaccines and what was the response? Is the Commission happy with this practice?

What has Ireland's commitment been to COVAX to date? How much have we contributed through Irish Aid, the World Health Organization, Global Health and the EU generally? Can the Taoiseach indicate the figures involved and how much financial support we are giving to COVAX through these various organisations?

Following the attempt at ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem and the conflict and military brutality from Israel that provoked, the Government agreed to pass a motion that acknowledged illegal settlements were taking place on Israel's part, but it voted down an amendment I tabled that sought to characterise the situation as it is, not simply as illegal settlements but as an ongoing process of ethnic cleansing by an apartheid state, and consequently the state of Israel needs to be treated as the apartheid South African regime was with sanctions and boycott. In the past week, there have been more instances of the point I was making. Early on the morning of 29 June in the Silwan area, south of the Al-Aqsa mosque, a town of 15,000 people, 40 Israeli military vehicles piled into the area in an attempt to demolish 96 homes of Jerusalemites. They used a bulldozer to knock down a butcher's shop. Israel has introduced a new law that essentially prevents those Palestinians from resisting the demolition of their homes. This week, there was also the spectacle of Naftali Bennett, the Israeli Prime Minister, trying to prevent Palestinians who marry Israelis from gaining Israeli citizenship. Is this not proof that it is an apartheid state and a state involved in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, as I said?

I take Deputy Brendan Smith's point on Russia. There was a good meeting and a good discussion including at a prior Council meeting for some time. The point has been made that the five principles that govern the EU's approach in the relationship include the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and strengthening relations with eastern partner countries, which was reiterated at the latest Council meeting. Several member states articulated the need to reach out and engage with eastern partner counties and, indeed, other countries of central Asia. Strengthening EU resilience to Russian threats is a key principle as well as selective engagement with Russia on certain issues such as counterterrorism, climate change and support for people-to-people contacts. Those are the five principles that govern member states and the EU generally in its relationship with Russia. The need for a unified approach across the EU is also important. Ireland supports an openness to selective engagement in certain areas, particularly climate security, Iran and Syria, but we believe that the pacing of that engagement is key. The recent behaviour of Russia in many areas has been unacceptable. That is the position at the moment and there is further work to be done. The High Representative, Josep Borrell, produced a good, comprehensive report on the status of the relationship with Russia right now and where he sees it going forward.

The general consensus was that we would pace the engagement but also see what the best model for engagement with the European Union is.

On the global footprint, I take the Deputy's point on Tbilisi. I will engage with the Minister for Foreign Affairs in respect of that. As he says, we are making progress on the Ukraine.

In terms of Deputy Paul Donnelly's points on the apartheid situation, it was interesting that when I met the UN Secretary General en marge of the meeting, he praised Ireland's contribution to the Security Council and Ireland's persistence on the situation in the Middle East, in particular in Palestine. The general international perception of Ireland is of a very activist, progressive and interventionist approach to the Middle East. That sometimes does not get articulated in the House. We should maintain the unity of purpose in terms of the broad principles that should govern our approach to a two-state solution and the ending of injustice. I accept the points that have been made by Deputies Donnelly and Boyd Barrett on the ongoing discrimination against Palestinians, which is unacceptable.

Deputy Kelly raised the Covid travel certificate. We are broadly on track in terms of the issuing of the certificates. We are making good progress in respect of that. Our objective was to sign up for 19 July. There will be a comprehensive presentation on the operationalisation of the system from the Irish perspective. We will operate the new digital certificate from 19 July for travel originating within the EU and EEA. What is particularly important for those travelling is to ascertain the status of how other member states are going to apply the certificate. That is important. People must check. On the way back in, people who are not vaccinated will be required to have a PCR test if they do not have proof of recovery from Covid.

We will broadly align ourselves to the EU approach to non-essential travel into the EU from third countries. There are ongoing discussions between the European Union and Great Britain as well as the United States of America. It would be desirable in respect of those two countries that we would have a unified, consistent approach and clear safety protocols for safe travel and public health advice. There will be a more comprehensive presentation on the issue in due course, but significant progress is being made in regard to it.

Deputy Kelly's point on long Covid is very well made. I am concerned about long Covid. Some of the debate that gets articulated regarding Covid from time to time is about the fact that it is okay because younger people do not go to hospital. I find that very annoying at times. Some 10% of all cases can develop into long Covid, which can have a significant negative effect on people for some time. The full implications of it have to be worked out. Europe has developed the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, HERA, group, which will probably develop into the HERA institute. It combines researchers, biotech companies, manufacturers and the medical authorisation agencies, in particular the European Medicines Agency, EMA, to deal with all these issues, both therapeutics and in terms of vaccines, where a lot of progress has been made.

Deputy Haughey raised a number of issues. We have agreed in principle with the Romanians to secure additional vaccines. We asked all EU states and we have got a very welcome response from Romania, which I appreciate. I had discussions with the Romanian President, and the arrangements are being worked out now between the two respective health systems. We have been in touch with other EU states in respect of that and the discussions remain to be brought to a conclusion.

We have been very strong on COVAX. Our view generally in the debate with the European Commission in terms of the global supply is towards giving additional resources to Africa, for example, to improve its production and manufacturing capacity. The European Union has pledged €1 billion to Africa in respect of additional capacity.

I am afraid the time is up.

I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett that what is going on in terms of the discrimination against Palestinians is unacceptable. There is no question about that. Ireland continues to call out Israel in respect of that.

I thank the Taoiseach. The time is up.

We consistently seek to get an alternative approach.

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