Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

Forthcoming General Affairs Council: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

10:10 am

Photo of Dominic HanniganDominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a question about Bosnia and Herzegovina which this committee visited about 15 months ago. We met with many of the people the Minister of State also met. We met the European integration committee, Mr. Fletcher Burton, Valentin Inzko and we also travelled to see the Irish soldiers at work in Camp Butmir. It was a very interesting and informative visit.

One message we got from our trip was that, since the Dayton peace agreement, there had been little development in the political life of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Will the Minister of State update the committee briefly on how that situation is developing?

Yesterday, the committee met a number of guests, including Dr. John O'Brennan from NUI Maynooth. He specifically mentioned the issues of integration and enlargement. In his opinion, there were unmistakable signs across European capitals that the appetite for enlargement was on the wane. At the Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees of Parliaments of the European Union, COSAC, last week, the representative from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, spoke along those lines and queried why enlargement was a priority for the Greek Presidency during its last Presidency, which was its fourth, but was not its priority this time. Has the issue of enlargement gone off the boil, particularly as regards Turkey and the Balkan states? It is a priority for Ireland. Is there still a desire throughout the Union to continue with the enlargement policy?

I mentioned our meeting yesterday. An RTE journalist, Mr. Tony Connelly, also attended. We discussed the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, which the Minister of State mentioned in his address, and the problems involved in moving forward with same. Mr. Connelly made the point that the TTIP was a priority for us during our Presidency and that, due to our historical and strong links with the US, we managed to get TTIP up and running. He questioned whether we should step in and try to push it forward. Would our Government have an enhanced role in progressing the TTIP?

Our third guest yesterday was former MEP and Deputy, Proinsias de Rossa. He referred to how our committee could play a role in the selection of the next Irish Commissioner. He suggested that the nominee should appear before us and take questions on his or her views on Europe and the Commission itself. Would this be a useful exercise for the committee?

The Minister of State will lead a series of discussions in our universities on the Irish working in EU institutions. I commend him on this worthwhile initiative. Will he provide a quick outline of what it will involve?

Before calling members, I will ask a final question about the Commission's communication last week on voting rights for EU citizens. It criticised five nations for not giving their nationals sufficient voting rights, those being, us, the UK, Malta, Cyprus and Denmark. This is a matter in which the committee is interested. We intend to hold meetings to discuss the Commission's guidance and how Ireland can improve voting rights for our diaspora. Does the Minister of State have an opinion on what could be done and how we should progress this issue?

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