Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Thank you very much, Mr. Rakowski. I will try to limit my comments to a couple of minutes. Ambassador Höpfner, I was in Berlin when the Chancellor announced her decision about the numbers of migrants. I was very impressed by the way in which ordinary people there seemed to open their hearts and doors on this issue. It was an example to all of us in the rest of Europe and it helped to move the debate on significantly.

While I was there, I spoke to some members of the Bundestag who explained that 30% of arrivals were actually from Balkan countries and were more economic migrants as opposed to refugees. Bearing in mind that many of these countries are accession states on their way to full EU membership, what is the internal debate about perhaps extending the visa programmes for such people, bearing in mind that hopefully in a short number of years they will be full members of the EU?

I also have a question for Ambassador Braccesi. When you were here in April, you would have heard the debate during which Mr. Sutherland stated he was interested in looking at the option of processing migrants in centres outside the EU. Do you have any thoughts on whether that could be a runner? It was debated at EU level but no decision was reached on going down that route.

Mr. Rakowski, I know that Poland is a member of the Visegrád group. What are your views on fellow members of the group and their attitude to this crisis? You mentioned about potentially seeing a significant influx of refugees from the Ukraine. Have you discussed burden sharing with other members of the Visegrád group in the event, which we all hope will not happen, that Poland sees a significant increase in numbers of Ukrainian refugees? How would you expect fellow members of the Visegrád group to react to that?

The next questioner is Deputy Seán Kyne.