Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am very happy to appear before this committee for the first time as Minister of State for European affairs and defence. I sent this statement yesterday. I was writing it from the General Affairs Council to try to encompass yesterday's work, so if I have to deviate slightly to provide further updates, I am sure members will forgive me. I look forward to discussing the issues arising from the GAC with the committee.

The importance of EU engagement and a strong commitment to multilateralism is particularly important at this time of global upheaval. The past five decades have witnessed Ireland’s emergence as a modern and open economy and society, shaped by close reciprocal co-operation with our European partners. I congratulate Commissioner-designate Michael McGrath on his nomination as EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law. He is a dedicated and experienced politician whom we all know, and he is qualified to make the best decisions in the interest of Europe in a portfolio at an especially important juncture, which we may discuss further.

Since taking up my position in April, I have attended five meetings of the General Affairs Council. Three of these were formal meetings held on 21 May, 25 June and 24 September. I also participated in two informal meetings, the first in Brussels in April and the second on 3 September last in Budapest. All of these occasions provided an important opportunity to meet colleagues and fellow EU affairs ministers and, indeed, to advance different issues of interest on the margins of those different meetings. I am happy to provide updates on those to the committee.

Prior to the informal GAC in Budapest, I had the opportunity to attend the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia. That event proved a vital means of strengthening relations with like-minded EU member states and engaging on topics of strategic importance including, and most importantly, EU enlargement, which remains a priority for this Government. This was the focus of the strategic forum in Bled and the meetings surrounding that. I then joined just 14 other EU affairs ministers at the informal GAC on 3 September in Budapest. This informal meeting was an opportunity for honest and forthright exchanges on competitiveness, improving the process of law-making, and demography. Again, we will discuss this in more detail with the committee but it is important to say that it was a careful decision to go to the informal GAC in circumstances where others were not going to some of the informal meetings in Hungary. My and our choice was that I would go to take the opportunity to stress the importance of rule of law and democracy in Budapest to the Presidency, particularly how developments in this area serve as a bedrock for individual rights. While in Hungary I also met with and heard the concerns, very importantly, of civil society in Hungary. I heard what people's experiences have been over recent months and years and how this has changed, especially in the areas of press freedom, treatment of refugees and the LGBTQI+ community.

Following these engagements in Hungary, I engaged in a series of bilateral meetings with counterparts in Helsinki, Vilnius and Tallinn. During these bilateral meetings I was particularly struck by, and went was because I concerned about, the ongoing and increasing difficulties in the areas of security and defence that have arisen from Russia's increasing aggression. I took the opportunity alongside my bilateral meetings and consultations to attend a briefing at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki, to visit the National Crisis Management Centre in Lithuania and to have a briefing at both the Belarusian-Lithuanian and the Estonian-Russian borders. I also visited the centre of excellence for cybersecurity in Tallinn.

I was also delighted to attend the most recent meeting of the GAC in Brussels yesterday and I am happy to share updates from that meeting. The first agenda item was a presentation on the priorities of the Hungarian Presidency. There was an important horizontal discussion on the rule of law and a discussion with four accession countries, namely, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, about their rule of law progress. A major part of the discussion was the preparation for the European Council meeting on 17 and 18 October. We will have a further opportunity to discuss that at the GAC before then. Setting out our stall in advance of that council meeting, I took the opportunity to raise the ongoing catastrophic situation in Sudan and proposed we consider discussion of it to be included on the agenda for the European Council meeting. The gravity of the humanitarian situation meant it was important it be raised. The scale of violence against civilians in Sudan demands our urgent engagement. It is also important to say a Spanish colleague raised the situation in Venezuela. Different people were raising different issues of international concern.

The situation in Ukraine continues to be an issue of the most serious concern for European leaders. At the GAC, I stressed Ireland’s position, again emphasising the importance that our focus remains on Ukraine and that the October European Council continues to send a clear message, including in practical terms, about the EU’s commitment to providing comprehensive and multifaceted support to Ukraine. Nowhere is that more important than broad, especially energy, security coming into the wintertime in Ukraine, which is an exceptionally difficult thing to do when your energy installations have been hit quite as badly as they have been by Russia.

Of great importance both to Ireland and to Europe is the situation in the Middle East. That was also due for discussion by the European Council but I took the opportunity to reiterate the Irish position that we very much hope negotiations on a ceasefire, a hostage release deal and unfettered humanitarian access to people in Gaza would have been successfully concluded by the time we actually reach the October European Council. However, just yesterday, as we all saw minute by minute and hour by hour, the situation became more difficult with the escalation in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The scale of bombardment has been extreme. Last week’s use of communication devices as booby traps has been widely condemned as a violation of international humanitarian law. It is also important to say this has been an escalating situation for nearly a year. Therefore, we are well aware of the circumstances related to it, but as we were discussing in the European Council, it was very clear this situation was escalating all the time.

The European Council will also discuss competitiveness, specifically the publication of the Draghi report, as well as some of the country-specific recommendations and the conclusion of the 2024 European semester. I took the opportunity to note that Ireland welcomes the publication of the Draghi report. We have a body of work to do within Government to prepare our own submission and recommendations in October, and that work continues. There is quite a lot of detailed work between different Departments on that at the moment. It is fair to say we share the view that Europe faces a competitiveness challenge which necessitates some fresh thinking and new policies to stimulate growth, innovation and investment.

The European Council may also address recent political developments in Georgia and Moldova, as I hope it will. I reiterated Irish support for Moldova’s EU membership aspirations while noting that it has an exceptionally important referendum coming up in the coming weeks in respect of EU membership. I also noted strongly that Georgia simply cannot continue on its path to EU membership based on recent political developments, which we strongly take the view do not reflect the will of the broader people but have been steps by a Government that is taking the people of Georgia further away from rather than closer to EU membership. There is also an important election coming up in Georgia.

The GAC also discussed two rule of law items. First was the horizontal discussion on the annual rule of law dialogue across the EU. Ireland outlined its support for the Commission’s annual rule of law reporting process and welcomed further details from the Commission on the plan to incorporate Single Market dimensions in future rule of law reporting processes. It is important to say where Ireland is on that. We have made strong progress on all of the measures that have been identified to us. There are two on which we need to continue to do more work but there are nine where we have very clearly made progress. We are operating at a very high level within this context and framework. There are others who have much more significant challenges to meet the standards of rule of law, but it is very important that we, as a Parliament, Government and State within the EU, continually hold ourselves to account on rule of law matters and do not enable any space for perceptions of independence to be diminished or allow any space for damage to our democracy. Therefore, it is very important we are participating in this process and openly holding ourselves to account in the way we ask others to.

The GAC also held a discussion on the general rule of law situation in Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, countries which were all included in rule of law reporting process for the first time. It was with great pleasure that we saw those colleagues come to the GAC, sit at the table and present their updates and some country-specific context about their experience of working with the Commission but also domestically in trying to meet the standards that have been set and, in doing that, the challenges they face within very different and, occasionally, very difficult political circumstances.

The message from Ireland was one of encouragement and support. We are a strong supporter of enlargement and recognise the scale of the challenges some of those countries face, so it was a message of encouragement. I would be happy to address all of these and take members' questions.