Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has said that we are going to monitor the elections. It seems that we were okay with the military takeover. The head of the military is going to stand in those elections and will probably win. The EU will oversee that. When the majority of the people of Crimea voted to join Russia, the EU had a huge problem with that. The Minister of State mentioned that he was in the Baltic states recently. People forget that Crimea was part of Russia for over 700 years before Khrushchev foolishly decided to give it as a present to Ukraine in 1954 to buy favour there. It was a very poor political decision. Most of the people of Crimea want to be part of Russia. Similarly, the people of Egypt decided in an election to put the Muslim Brotherhood into power. I am not saying the Muslim Brotherhood are lovely fellows, but it is clear that the Egyptian people voted for them, only for them to be overthrown by the military. When Obama and Kerry were asked what was going on, and whether they intended to do anything about it, they said that the people had spoken. I do not know how anyone can defend that. While I am glad to hear that the EU has imposed some sanctions on Egypt, I would like to hear what the Minister of State has to say about the suggestion that the EU needs to reprimand the US for its continued support of an unelected military power in Egypt.

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