Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome Mr. Fouéré to the committee. I wish to refer to his policy paper of 31 October. What is striking is the eloquence of the picture it paints of the issues at stake in the Balkans. He describes all that is wrong with the Balkan region, with political interference in the judiciary, a lack of political dialogue within the political parties, which is affecting the proper functioning of parliament, deep polarisation of society, which is exacerbated by heightened interactive tensions, and a level of corruption that not only has not diminished but has in many instances become worse.

Obviously we have seen a great deal of progress in the past number of decades in terms of the enlargement process, particularly with the accession of the ten countries. Notwithstanding that, does Mr. Fouéré see a heightened divide between east and west within the European Union? In his opinion, is that becoming more noticeable, particularly in view of the economic difficulties we have had in many countries in the past number of years? Is that leading to more concerns within the west? We have seen the issues that arose when the embargo on immigration from Bulgaria and Romania was lifted on 1 January this year. It was suggested that there would be an influx or a flood of migrants coming to work in the UK, in particular. I remember seeing reports that the media were at the airport waiting for the expected hordes to come off the planes, but they lucky to find one person who had arrived. Are they feeding the frenzy or are they responding to the frenzy that already exists? Deputy Byrne has spoken about UKIP and the concerns that it is feeding into.

The referendum held before Ireland joined the EEC showed very high levels of support for accession. That high level of support has gradually dropped, for a variety of reasons. Is that level of support evident in those countries? The deputy Prime Minister of Turkey appeared before this committee a year and a half ago to generate support for Turkey's accession. When I asked him about the level of support in Turkey for accession to the EU he said it was high but dropping, mainly because of all the rejections. People were of the view that if the EU did not want Turkey to join, they should not be pursuing it. They were not as strong in their support for joining the European Union. What is the level of support evident among people in the western Balkans?

We have discussed the rule of law in Hungary and the issues facing the Prime Minister, Mr. Orbán, particularly the row-back in the past number of weeks with regard to taxing Internet access. Does he think that allowing and permitting this to continue is feeding into the problems in the accession countries? Does he think this is causing the accession countries to ask themselves questions?

Why should we change? Why should we enact any policies when other countries are going ahead anyway? That is the main issue of concern.

In many eastern countries, we see the problems the LGBT community has and the persecution that goes on, which is deeply concerning. In the West, in general, we are progressing. That is not case in those countries and I wonder, as Deputy Eric Byrne said, whether this feeding in from Russia is evident in eastern European countries.