Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I will change my plans and I thank the Cathaoirleach for letting me in here. I thank Ms Nolan for that comprehensive presentation. The EU generally and the Commission in particular has done well over the past four years with regard to the ongoing fallout from Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic, the distribution of the vaccines, the war in Ukraine, climate change which we have just discussed, and also the energy and cost-of-living crisis. By and large, the EU gets there in the end. Sometimes the decision-making process is not pretty between all of the institutions but by and large we have dealt with these issues quite well and continue to do so.

I am not going to dwell on this but on the Israel-Hamas breakout of violence on 7 October, it has to be said that the EU response at best was initially disjointed to that, in particular, the tweet or post on X from the Hungarian Commissioner; then Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, came out with a more comprehensive statement following the initial comments of the Commission President. I do not intend to dwell on this but I want to know if lessons have been learned from that whole episode and, in particular, the position of the Hungarian Commissioner. Has there been any follow-up action in that regard because it did make the EU look a little - what is the word - disjointed in the eyes of the world? I ask Ms Nolan to answer however she wishes or if she does not want to answer the question at all, that is fine.

On the pact on migration and asylum, I may have missed Ms Nolan's answer to Deputy Harkin but on the outstanding issues there, I know that the European Council failed to agree on that recently, or on some proposals, at any rate. Are there any outstanding issues which need to be addressed in that regard, where, I presume, it is hoped that by April final agreement will be reached on the whole issue?

On the policy on China, again, Ursula von der Leyen dealt with this in great deal in her 2023 state of the Union address, together with the position on electric vehicles. On the general position of the Commission to China, I have heard the word "de-risk" used. I assume that is the kind of general approach, where the EU needs to "de-risk" in respect of China. Can I ask Mr Nolan to give our committee some general comments on the EU approach to China generally at this point in time and where it is at?

I also ask that Ms Nolan might comment on the rule of law. We have seen the recent elections in Poland, and hopefully Poland will not be giving the EU any more trouble in that regard if and when a new government is formed. Ms Nolan does not have to comment on that matter either.

I have another question on enlargement. Ms Nolan mentioned a communication on pre-enlargement, reforms and policy review which the Commission will put forward. That is something I believe we will all be taking an interest in. Does Ms Nolan believe that that the paper will deal with the decision-making processes and the need for institutional reform, the future of the Multiannual Financial Framework, MFF, the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, reform and all of those sorts of issues? Can Ms Nolan say a little bit more about that communication which will be brought forward? We discussed that with the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs a week or two ago where this issue of enlargement came up at the General Affairs Council in a paper by a Franco-German expert group on institutional reform and decision-making. We were all a little alarmed by that. I would be interested to know a little bit more about that and what the likely issues to be addressed in that communication are.