Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee. I welcome the opportunity to meet members and update them on discussions at the Foreign Affairs Council in recent months. As ever, the Council has a busy agenda and we dealt with a wide range of issues at our meetings in January, February and March. We will be considering some of these again when we meet in Luxembourg next Monday.

During the past couple of years, the issue which has undoubtedly received the closest and most sustained attention from the Council has been the political transformations in the Middle East and north Africa linked to the Arab spring.While the crisis in Syria has understandably taken up much of our time, the Council has also addressed other issues in the region. At our January meeting, for example, we conducted an important stock take in relation to the overall EU strategy vis-à-vis the process of transition which is under way in many Arab societies.

A little over two years on from the popular uprisings which first took hold in Tunisia and Egypt in early 2011, any reasonable assessment must conclude that the process of change we are witnessing has been largely positive in its consequences for the region. Of course, there have been many challenges and setbacks, with the conflict in Syria clearly presenting a major threat to peace and stability in the region. However, this should not be allowed to overshadow the very real and positive changes we have seen, such as the holding of democratic elections in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen, effectively for the first time in most cases.

The EU, for its part, is committed to upholding key values, such as respect for human rights and the rule of law, in the efforts it is making to provide support and partnership to the countries undergoing transition.

The Middle East peace process was considered in some detail at both the January and February Councils. Ministers reviewed developments following the appointment of Mr. John Kerry as US Secretary of State and the Israeli elections held on 22 January. Injecting urgently needed momentum into the peace process and promoting the beginning of substantive negotiations between the two sides is a major priority for Ireland and the European Union as a whole. In the three meetings I have had so far with the US Secretary of State I have strongly encouraged him in his efforts to get peace talks relaunched and promote confidence-building measures on both sides, particularly on the part of the new Israeli Government. We must not ignore the continuing threats to the viability of the two-state solution and the increasingly narrow window of opportunity to make progress. The Council urgently needs to review progress, if any, since the strong conclusions it adopted last May on the peace process and key viability issues such as settlements, area C and the continuing blockade of Gaza. I hope it will be possible for such a review to take place next month at the May Council.