Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

I accept that the Deputy has been in the Basque Country on a number of occasions with regard to the move towards a peace process. Obviously we would welcome any assistance he and his colleagues could give in that respect. As the Deputy knows, ETA has been on the EU list of terrorist organisations since December 2001 and by a unanimous decision of EU member states, Batasuna was added to this list on 4 June 2003. In taking the decision, the Council was satisfied that Batasuna was a terrorist organisation and that it was merely an alias for ETA. The Deputy knows the situation well. On Saturday last, 18 February, ETA issued a public statement. While it called for dialogue and negotiation as being the only way forward, unfortunately the text of its statement also attempted to justify the group's recent bombing campaign.

The current Spanish Government has made it clear that the only type of communication from ETA in which it has any interest would be one which would renounce violence and show a desire to move on a clearly political path. Prime Minister Zapatero has been as accommodating as he can be within the normal democratic principles in order to reach out a hand to assist people in ETA and Batasuna who may wish to move exclusively into a political realm. In a recent interview last weekend he indicated there is a clear road map starting from the May 2005 parliamentary resolution which in effect calls on ETA to abandon its arms, to renounce violence and to engage in political talks.

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