H.E. Mr. Lars Thuesen:

I will start with the Middle East. We all have our history and we certainly have our own history when it comes to Israel. That is also part of our policy today. During the Second World War, Denmark was occupied for five years. At a certain point, we got information from the Germans that they were going to arrest all the Jews in Denmark and transport them to concentration camps. We managed to spread the rumour and during a few weeks, individual Danes, not the government, helped 7,000 Jews to escape to Sweden. It was a very serious and difficult action, with huge risks for people in small boats, but we did it. Why did we do it? We did it, not because they were Jews, but because they were Danes. They had always been a totally integrated part of our society. They were never seen as Jews; we just saw them as Danes. I am just telling this story because Ireland has its history and Denmark has its history. In the years afterwards, we have had very close ties to Israel. That does not mean that we are in agreement with what is happening in Gaza and Israel, for the time being.

I will take one minute to read what our position is. We call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and we also call for an unconditional release of all hostages. We continue to call on Israel to fully lift its blockade on Gaza, to allow immediate access and the distribution of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, and to enable the UN and its agencies and humanitarian organisations to work independently to save lives and to reduce suffering.

We also stress that when Israel wants to talk to us, it must fully comply with its obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law. We must ensure the protection of civilians, including humanitarian workers, at all times, as well as of civilian infrastructure. We follow international law. We tell the Israelis to follow the law. When it comes to genocide, I understand what members said when they called it a genocide. For us, it has to be a legal decision. It is our policy to leave it to the International Court of Justice, ICJ, to take a final position on this issue. However, I do not think it is fair to say that Ireland is alone in the European Council. It is definitely no secret that there are different positions on what is the way forward. I mentioned before that we have a historical background and Ireland has a historical background, but there is also a big nation in the European Union that has a background when it comes to Israel and the Jews. It is not an easy issue and probably also for that reason, it is hard to get the influence that we would like to have. It is not easy at all. We will do our best to be the honest broker and we will do what we can to. To say the least, the former European Presidencies have not been very successful in this area but we will do what we can.

There were a lot of other questions. Regarding citizenship, I do not know the procedure here in Ireland so I cannot really compare it with Denmark. Over the years, it has become more difficult to get Danish citizenship, as we have become stricter. For example, we look very closely at people's criminal records, because of our experiences. We adhere to all the international conventions and the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, that it is very hard to expel people once they have Danish citizenship, although they might have dual citizenship. We have some people who have committed extremely serious crimes. Normally, these people would be expelled because we do not accept murderers and other people who have committed serious crimes. We would like to expel them but we cannot do so. Also, for this reason we have made it more difficult to become a Danish citizen. I stress again that we follow all international conventions and all the verdicts from the European Court of Human Rights. There is no doubt about that.

There was also a question about Article 7 and Hungary. We want to be an honest broker. In fact, the Danish Minister for European Affairs has been travelling to each and ever member state and each candidate country. I have heard her ask about the proposals from different countries. It is not easy; we need to have a qualified majority to use Article 7 and we are not even close to having that. We are going to act as an honest broker and we will listen to people. We want to take action and do something. We do not think we are in a position where we will be able to use Article 7 at this point, so we are looking for other methods. In our experience, using Part 8 of the MFA, or micro-financial assistance, once in a while helps. That might be the way forward.

We have some serious difficulties when it comes to the blocking of the enlargement, especially when it comes to Ukraine. In this case, we would like to start the negotiation on what is called cluster 1. Ukraine has fulfilled all the criteria to start the negotiations on this. However, one member country is blocking this. We need all the member states to be behind this solution. We do not think it is fair. Ukraine has done everything it can and has fulfilled all the requirements. It is time to start the accession negotiations. This does not mean Ukraine is close to becoming a member. That could still be years away, but we should honour our commitment and start the process. We have also asked colleagues for good ideas on how we can move forward. However, we also have to respect the treaties and the legal framework. At this point, I am afraid we do not know the way forward. We are still looking at different possibilities, talking to other member states and listening to the Commission.