Mary Harney
Ceist:5 Miss Harney asked the Taoiseach the proposed agenda for the forthcoming summit of European Union leaders in Italy. [6405/96]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Turin Summit.
I assume the Deputy is referring to the meeting in Turin on Friday of the European Council. The purpose of this special European Council is to formally launch the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the review of the Treaty on European Union. The Italian Presidency has indicated that the objective of the Turin Council is to confer the highest degree of political priority on the work of revising the Treaty and to formulate conclusions which will provide an outline of the agenda for the Intergovernmental Conference. The European Council will not however commence the Intergovernmental Conference negotiations. Foreign Ministers will be responsible for the actual conduct of negotiations and will hold their first session in Turin on the afternoon of Friday.
The Italian Presidency has stated that it is also intended that the President of the European Commission, Mr. Jacques Santer, will give a presentation to the Turin European Council on his recent employment proposals.
Will the Taoiseach say whether the BSE issue will be on the Turin Council agenda?
It is not on the agenda but it may be raised.
What is the Taoiseach's view on supporting the British application for financial aid in view of their present difficulties?
These are rather specific issues worthy of separate questions.
It is reasonable to ask if we will have Community solidarity.
It is a broad matter, admittedly, but it deserves a special question.
We had a debate on this yesterday and I do not want to be drawn into giving a detailed series of answers on it beyond saying that if a proposal is made we will be willing to look at it in an effort to do anything reasonable to support a restoration of consumer confidence in European beef. I cannot be expected to go beyond that because we do not have a proposal to which we can react; we have not looked at it in the context of the Community budget or its other implications at this juncture, but I am broadly in favour of anything that might help to restore consumer confidence in beef.
Will the Taoiseach take steps to ensure that the issue of trans-boundary pollution, our concerns about the ongoing problems with Sellafield and the recent oil spillage off the Wexford coast will be on the agenda of the forthcoming intergovernmental conference?
That issue, environmental concerns generally and matters such as the EURATOM Treaty revision will be raised in the course of the intergovernmental conference.
I again protest that the Government White Paper on Foreign Policy was circulated just two days before the intergovernmental conference. It was promised last summer and now, on the eve of the summit, it is to be debated here. That is totally unsatisfactory. The Taoiseach is being very unreasonable and has broken all the promises of openness, transparency and accountability he made to this House.
I do not agree with the Deputy. Publication at the very time this issue is to be discussed is timely. It is more up to date because of the timing of its publication than any other documents published by other countries. The Intergovernmental Conference will not commence negotiation on Friday; it will simply commence a process and the Irish input will be the most up to date of all the inputs now being considered in that process.
It is a document prepared by the Government but the policies of every other member state were put forward several months ago and publicly debated. I totally agree these matters should be publicly debated but not on the same day the Taoiseach travels to the Intergovernmental Conference. That is a nonsense.
Decisions will not be taken for quite some time in regard to the key issues for negotiation in the Intergovernmental Conference. There will be ample opportunity to debate this issue. The important point is that the Irish White Paper on Foreign Policy will be the most up to date of all the documents published by national governments in advance of the Intergovernmental Conference, and that is a plus factor.
The Ceann Comhairle presided over debates in this Chamber where the question of the publication of the White Paper was raised and was understanding of Members on this side of the House in that regard. Publication of the White Paper was promised last June, September, October, November, December, January and February. We eventually received it this week when the Turin Intergovernmental Conference is being held. We were promised a full debate on the White Paper. Statements will be made on Thursday——
The Deputy should proceed by way of question.
Will the Taoiseach outline the items on the agenda for the Intergovernmental Conference and how they relate to the White Paper?
The White Paper is a very large document. The issues that will be considered in the Intergovernmental Conference are common foreign and security policy, defence policy, co-decision, the three pillar structure of the Union, the number of Commissioners, qualified majority voting, voting weights in Council and other matters that may be raised by individual states. The overriding and guiding concern will be to make Europe more relevant to its citizens, to make it work more efficiently, particularly in light of enlargement, and to enhance its capacity to act externally, in other words, to represent the collective interests of Europe overseas.
What line will be taken by the Irish negotiators, on behalf of the Irish people, in regard to the defence issue?
Surely defence requires special treatment by way of a separate question. It is too wide-ranging a subject for this question.
It concerns a specific item on the agenda of the Intergovernmental Conference.
That may be so but I am proceeding now to Question No. 6 in the name of Deputy Tom Kitt.
Other than the peace process the Intergovernmental Conference is the most important issue currently facing us.
I am aware of that.
We on this side of the House wish the Irish negotiating team well but the major issue facing them is defence and I am simply asking if we could be given an indication of the line they will adopt——
I am aware of that and I am aware also of the Deputy's desire to circumvent my ruling.
I am not attempting to circumvent your ruling.
I have said the issue of defence is too serious to be dealt with now. The Deputy can table a question on the subject.
The item is on the agenda and that is the question before us.