Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will continue and will then make some concluding comments on the areas the Taoiseach has asked me to mention.

That is the main point of difference. The Deputy referred to the role of corporations and big business within the EU, and the difficulties and problems they can pose for the ordinary people whom he and I represent. I ask him, however, to look at the EU's role in regulating and dealing with them. I would point to the banking union. What better way do we have of dealing with large banks and global banking corporations if not through the member states' ability to pool their sovereignty - in other words, to work together to come up with better regulation methods than they could on their own?

For example, if a bank of systemic risk fails, arrangements are now in place for burden sharing among bondholders. In addition, owners and shareholders will have to take a hit and the consequences of that failure first. That role was directly negotiated through the EU. It is about dealing with the very point the Deputy raised on how we can deal with large business that have an awful lot of power.

The other side of the coin is that the very multinationals the Deputy regularly castigates and criticises are the same ones that employ many people in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU. They play a vital part in growing national economies and the European economy generally. I am very much aware of the other side of the coin. While large companies need to live up to their responsibilities, they do provide employment and tax revenue on which national governments depend. Many of them provide employment and services on which small and medium-sized companies are very much dependent. Apart from what the Deputy said, therefore, there is a wider picture. One of the EU's roles is to help national governments, particularly those in smaller countries, to deal with large organisations that could pose a systemic risk to a government or national economy.

I will now conclude by referring to some areas that were touched on in the debate. We have already discussed the association agreements. I repeat that these are voluntary arrangements that were entered into by the governments of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. I attended the ceremony where the association agreements were signed. On that occasion, President Van Rompuy said they represented a historic milestone within the history of the EU with partner countries. They also represent an important development in the EU's eastern partnership, whose aim is to create a zone of prosperity in that part of Europe. That objective has never been more important.

We welcome the decision of the European Council to grant Albania candidate status. I have visited that country, as did members of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs last week. These are the early stages of what is a very important process for the Albanians. It will provide more incentives and encouragement for the Albanian Government to continue with the kind of changes needed to benefit the Albanian people in regard to legal, economic and public administration matters.

Some Deputies asked me where we currently stand on the climate and energy framework discussions for 2020. At the European Council, leaders took stock of where we stand at the moment. The main Council meeting on that, however, will take place in October. At the most recent Council, Heads of State and Government welcomed the publication by the Commission of the energy security strategy. That is all about making more efforts to reduce Europe's high energy dependency.

The Council meeting also touched on the European maritime security strategy which was developed under the Greek Presidency. It provided a welcome opportunity to highlight the importance of building a Europe-wide consensus on maritime security. As an island nation with an extensive coastline, we are obviously very much aware of that issue.

A large number of important topics were discussed at the European Council. Through this discussion, I have done my best to respond to the comments and questions put to me by Members. I look forward to participating at the Committee on European Union Affairs on the next briefing that will take place in the run-up to the next General Affairs Council.

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