Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On the timing of the agreement itself, with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the minorities in different countries that are part of this, does the Minister accept that rather than de-escalate tension, it will actually increase problems in the area?

There are issues with the language used in the association agreements. The one relating to Georgia refers to the "deep and comprehensive" free-trade agreement as "one of the most ambitious free trade agreements that the EU has ever negotiated with a third country". There are plenty of references to Russia, perhaps not all unfair but some certainly unhelpful. It congratulates Georgia on redirecting exports to new markets, which I presume means away from Russia and to the EU. It also asserts, "there is strong national and cross-party consensus in Georgia in favour of integration with the West". When I met the chargé d'affairesyesterday, he stressed that. However, it also refers to the EU and NATO, which is not language that we, as a neutral country, would support.

My big problem is with the timing. People can argue over whether there is ever a good time in that regard. My view is that it was a zero-sum game. People were given the ultimatum that they either agree or not. The Minister has said that is not his view of it. There is a view across many countries and parties within Europe that, given all the tension, the timing of the agreement with Ukraine was bad.

There was mention of the High Representative's statement that it was necessary to move away from slogans and start to take practical steps to approach the difficulties in the region. I accept that parliaments and governments in those countries want to move this forward, but as we know, other parliaments, if we are to be part of this, have gone the opposite way. There is the view that it was a zero-sum game and there was not much of a choice. We have already seen sanctions. The Russians have placed sanctions on Moldova and the EU confirmed that it would open up its markets in that regard. This again represents an escalation. Many of these countries are seen as a buffer zone between Europe and Russia. That does not justify any of the actions of the Russians. There are huge concerns there. The timing is bad. The message people in those countries are getting is that things will improve regarding their economies and so on, but it might not necessarily happen that way.