Mr. Martin Konený:

What we are suggesting in our submission is for Ireland to become a champion of differentiation policy mainly in the EU, which does not mean only at the EU level, it means encouraging other member states to jointly progress this policy at the national level. We believe the Parliament can play a role in encouraging the Government to be more proactive in this because there is space for Ireland to do more on this. When it comes to the national level and specifically labelling, the first step would be to ask the Government to assess and evaluate what kinds of imports from settlements there are to Ireland. In my understanding, in Ireland it is more limited than in some other member states. We did research specifically into settlement wines being imported into the EU a year and a half ago and we found many of these products in countries such as Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, but not in Ireland. Maybe the potential of labelling in Ireland is more limited than elsewhere. First, one would need to look at the scope of the settlement products. However, our main recommendation today is for Ireland to play a stronger role in promoting differentiation in the EU. This is something that can be done while the occupied territories Bill is on hold. In the meantime, there is a whole set of things that can be progressed in the EU.