Mr. Barry Andrews:

It is great to be here and re-establish the practice of MEPs attending this committee. It is very useful for me and I hope we can share ideas.

I have two questions, one of which is on accession, which was touched on earlier. There is a debate in the European institutions about moving away from a technocratic approach to accession, which is based on full compliance with the Copenhagen criteria, to a more political approach, which would allow for the fact that some of the accession candidates do not necessarily meet all the compliance criteria. The EU of 2022 is very different from what it was when we joined 50 years ago, when it was known as the European Economic Community. Ireland was very poor then and not quite as socially progressive as it is now. There was a heightened state of tension over conflict on the island of Ireland in 1972, when we joined. Despite this, we blossomed. Ireland is a poster boy for accession and has demonstrated that convergence can happen within the EU. A debate on moving away from the technocratic approach is occurring in the EU institutions. My question is for Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze, in particular. If the European Council does not grant accession-candidate status to Ukraine at its June meeting, what will be the reaction politically and among the people in Ukraine, particularly if the sixth sanctions package has still not passed, which is quite likely? The US introduced an oil embargo on 8 March but we still have not done anything. We have been talking about it for three months. If we do not grant accession status and do not manage to deliver the sixth sanctions package, I believe there will be a negative reaction. Perhaps Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze could go into that in a little more detail.

My second question is on the humanitarian response. Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze mentioned the unexpectedly low level of performance of the ICRC and stated UN agencies are not present. That is very worrying because the Irish Red Cross has attracted donations of €35 million, which is unprecedented. It is really important that it deliver this time. However, it must comply with the humanitarian principles of independence, neutrality and impartiality. There is a very clear mandate. I have heard from many Ukrainian MPs who are frustrated by the ICRC because it has had meetings with Mr. Sergey Lavrov. It has opened an office in Rostov, Russia, but quite rightly states it has to do this to have the authority and credibility to do prisoner exchanges, open humanitarian corridors and visit Ukrainian prisoners in Russian territory. Maybe Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze could elaborate on the current attitude to the ICRC and whether there is an understanding of its mandate. Is the frustration really about its failure to deliver in terms of programming given the massive donations made by the public in Ireland and the rest of Europe over the past couple of months?