Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome both of our guests. I welcome Professor Tonra in particular. It is 30 years since he lectured me and gave me a workshop on the politics of European security. It seems that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Professor Tonra spoke about the limitations of the EU and I tend to agree that it has been very much a bystander. Is there anything, within those limitations, that it can be doing a lot better? In fairness, he outlined a pretty serious programme of actions that the EU has undertaken, many of which were unknown to me. Is there anything that the EU can be doing with its moral authority in particular? In the context of the remarks about the limitations, one hears about Putin, Biden, Macron or Johnson but one never hears Ursula von der Leyen's name in the context of driving this or driving any particular agenda around it.

Professor Ó Beacháin spoke about his work in 15 former Soviet republics over the past 20 years. In his view, with that experience and work behind him, are we at a more unstable time in Europe than we have been for some time or does it just seem that way? That question is also for Professor Tonra who has been working in this space for a long time too.