Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reference to my experience of the Moldovan elections but we will not go into that. He has a lovely presentation here and I am sure it is all on the record. If he wants to talk to me privately, I will be very happy to give him my personal view of the elections in Moldova, on which I will touch in my contribution.

I welcome the Minister and enthusiastically welcome these association agreements and their ratification. I am blessed in the sense that I am one of the few politicians in this room who has experience of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia. I am disappointed Sinn Féin would take a position that somehow or other these people are being coerced into an agreement that they do not want. It is a sad day in many ways in that up in the Phoenix Park the Armenian ambassador to Ireland and England is presenting his papers to the President today. The tragedy about the missing Armenian name to the list is that they were very heavily subjected to pressure by the Russian Federation into pulling back from the association agreement and being forced against their will into the Eurasian Customs Union with the Russian Federation. It will be something for our committee to engage on with the Armenian ambassador at another stage.

Notwithstanding my well-documented concerns about the European relationship with Ukraine in the early days of the association agreement, and it is water under the bridge now, I ask the Minister, who I am sure is acutely aware of the composition of these three countries where there is a Russian influence, be it a Russian border or Russian speaking minorities, to be very conscious of that. He spoke about what became of the elections in Moldova. The biggest party to be returned in the Moldovan elections was the most pro-Putin, pro-Russian Federation Party. That is not to say that the composition of potential coalition partners will not be greater in terms of being pro-European than pro-Russian. The fact that this is a reality for Moldova makes us acutely aware, having noted the mistakes that were made in the early stages of the association agreement with Ukraine, that Russia has threatened and carried out its threats in the past, as the Minister will know with Transnistria being the industrial core of the region, which was and is part of Moldova. Moldova is an agricultural country and society, depending on the exports of its agricultural produce, its wine, fruit and vegetables. The Russians have severed their link with the Moldovan wine industry, notwithstanding the fact that I have seen in the cellars President Putin's allocated portion of very fine Moldovan wines. Also, in the case of Georgia we know about South Ossetia and about the relationship between Georgia and the Russian Federation. These are difficult countries and I would be keen to be assured that this little country of ours, in our negotiations with these partners, is acutely conscious of the historical relationships of the Russians, back to the Second World War and liberation from Nazism, their attachment to their language and the fact that there is a predominant Russian influence in Transnistria.

I wish the three countries well and I welcome them on board. I wish to ask the Minister a question relating to Ukraine. Let us praise the OSCE. It has done a phenomenal job. The Minister is aware the OSCE only acts with the agreement of 57 countries. We have Irish representatives operating there as part of the EU advisory mission, EUAM, for the reform of civilian security. Whose role is it to monitor the Ukrainian military? The fighting force known as the Right Sector is disconnected from the military hierarchy. That is very important because it could potentially be prone to breaking a ceasefire or to provocation of the Russian-speaking people of eastern Ukraine. That is a key area.

I have nothing further to add. The Minister is aware of the sensitivities of the three countries and their relationship with the region. We must applaud the High Representative. When she was before the committee she told us that we are a community of nations. We are all neighbours. The 28 member states have neighbours who are our friends and we want to be friends with the neighbour of our neighbours. Europe will be well represented by the new High Representative in her leadership role.