Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious that we are behind time and that our witnesses must head to Dublin Airport at 3.45 p.m. I apologise to our witnesses for the delay in commencing the public session of the meeting. We were discussing another matter in private session and it overran.

On behalf of the committee I welcome Mr. Pierre Vimont, the Executive Secretary General of the European External Action Service, EEAS. He is accompanied by Ms Jutta Edthofer, the Antici counsellor, and Mr. Keith McBean, the Irish Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee in Brussels.

The EEAS is a very young organisation, having been established in December 2010. Mr. Vimont and his colleagues have faced the challenge of putting in place a very large organisation with a shared organisational culture, which is a daunting task given that the staff is drawn from so many various backgrounds. Parallel to these organisational challenges, the EEAS has had to establish itself as an effective actor in international affairs on behalf of the European Union and has played an important role in Serbia and Kosovo, in talks with Iran and in efforts to bring about a resumption of talks in the Middle East peace process. These few lines sum up a very daunting task.

The committee is interested to hear how the EEAS approaches the challenges which determine its policy priorities and how it interacts for this purpose with the institutions of the European Union and the member states, in particular the state holding the Presidency, which we will do in the first six months of 2013. I commend High Representative Catherine Ashton for her commitment in interacting directly with the committees on foreign affairs of EU national parliaments at their twice yearly interparliamentary conferences. Since I became Chairman of this committee I have attended three Presidency meetings and Baroness Ashton has been there to brief chairpersons from throughout the EU and she also holds question and answer sessions. I am very impressed with her and her role. I hope over time the relationship between her and these committees can develop. It is important that this happens. In the meantime, we look forward to welcoming Baroness Ashton. I believe she will be here for OSCE meetings in the first week in December. We will host a meeting during the Irish Presidency, in the third week of March, and Baroness Ashton has committed to attend it.

I wish to advise Mr. Vimont that he is protected by absolute privilege in respect of utterances to this committee. However, if he is directed by the committee to cease making remarks on a particular matter and continues to do so, he is entitled, thereafter, only to a qualified privilege in respect of his remarks. He is directed that only comments or evidence connected with the subject matter of the meeting are to be given and he is asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that where possible, he should not criticise or make charges against a Member of either House of the Oireachtas, a person outside of the Houses or an official by name in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.

Once again I apologise for the delay.