Bernard Durkan
Question:24. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Taoiseach the extent to which progress was made at the most recent European Council meeting with particular reference to the most pressing issues. [52868/21]
View answerTuesday, 16 November 2021
Questions (24)
Written answers
I attended a meeting of the European Council on 21/22 October in Brussels.
The agenda covered COVID-19, energy prices, trade, external relations, migration and digital transformation. We also had a discussion on the rule of law in the European Union.
We discussed Covid-19, with a particular focus on vaccination rates across the EU, in the context of rising infection rates in some Member States and tackling disinformation in relation to the pandemic.
We also discussed the importance of the global roll out of vaccines and the central role of the World Health Organisation in global health governance.
On energy prices we discussed what we can do individually as Member States, and collectively as EU, to mitigate the impact of recent price fluctuations on vulnerable citizens and businesses. We also considered medium and long-term measures to increase the EU’s energy resilience and green transition.
We also discussed digital issues including ongoing progress on the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, ahead of the publication of a European Chips Act planned by the Commission.
We discussed trade, including its coherence with the overall international perspective of the EU, and, of course, critically, the importance of trade to global economic recovery.
We discussed migration, including ongoing work to support countries of origin and transit.
We called on Turkey to implement fully the EU-Turkey Statement of 2016, including vis-à-vis the Republic of Cyprus.
We discussed also a new issue of enormous concern: the instrumentalisation of vulnerable migrants by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus.
We agreed conclusions on a number of important Summits – including COP15 on biodiversity; and COP26 Climate Summit, which I attended in Glasgow; the Asia Europe (ASEM) Summit, which I will participate in when it will be held virtually on 25/26 November; and the EU-Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Brussels on 15 December.
Questions Nos. 25 to 28, inclusive, resubmitted.