Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Whips for agreeing to the debate on this issue. I raised it at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and, although only a small period is set aside for the debate, I welcome the opportunity to discuss the proposed association agreements.

Sinn Féin is not in favour of these association agreements because they comprise a Hobson's choice that does little to improve the socio-economic development of the countries involved and nothing to de-escalate recent tensions in the region. In principle, we are not against the further expansion of the EU. We fully supported the improved relationship between the EU member states and countries that border the EU. This is not just important but vital, given the long and historic divisions and conflicts that have bedevilled the many peoples of the region.

As a party, we have no objections to improving visa regimes operating between the EU and these countries. We certainly do not wish to tell other countries how to conduct their international affairs. Moving in a direction towards the EU is a matter for their electorates. However, we do stand opposed to the insidious EU economic agenda that undermines the sovereign powers of states, seeking to end state involvement in economic development, and moves towards the breaking up or selling off of successful state-owned assets.

Association agreements used to be focused primarily on political commitments and co-operation but recently they have also contained deep and comprehensive free trade agreements, DCFTAs. These three association agreements have DCFTAs at their heart. They lock countries into so-called economic changes based on privatisation and cutting wages and worsening working conditions under the guise of stabilising market conditions. We opposed that element in Ireland's bailout and in the current TTIP negotiations, and we will oppose it in the EU's free trade agreement with Colombia, to be debated in this Chamber tomorrow. We oppose it in these association agreements.

We are in favour of improving trade with the countries. They are some of the most disadvantaged in Europe, but we cannot support what is essentially a political Hobson’s choice and the economic provisions on which the agreements are based.

The Ukraine association agreement agrees to remove subsidies that affect trade and it is the first free trade agreement to include specific provisions on trade-related energy issues. In the agreement, the parties commit themselves to let market prices prevail on the domestic gas and electricity markets and not to regulate prices for industry. Neither party will impose prices for exporting energy products which are higher than domestic prices, yet gas and fuel subsidies comprise one of the main ways in which people are able to heat their homes in the winter. Surely removing these subsidies will ensure many poor people will literally freeze to death in the bitter Ukrainian winter. Rules on non-discriminatory access to the exploration and production of hydrocarbons are a nod to EU firms to exploit Ukraine's natural resources for their own corporate gain.

Georgia is a minor trade partner of the EU and has a considerable trade deficit with regard to the Union. The association agreement will not change that. In fact, Georgia has attracted EU attention chiefly as a transit route for energy supplies from the Caspian Sea, as reflected in the association agreement’s energy security chapter.

Russia has repeatedly threatened Moldova about the risk of losing out on trade with Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS, markets if Moldova goes ahead with the EU agreements. It has also banned agricultural exports from Moldova. A country as poor as Moldova should not be faced with this Hobson's choice.

The agreements aim to expand to the countries in question the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU, including the common security and defence policy. Sinn Féin stands in opposition to this and to attempts to incorporate the countries into NATO. All three countries contain breakaway territories that neither Russia effectively controls nor directly supports. These association agreements do not fully take account of this and do not seek to try to resolve any of the conflicts or de-escalate the recent tensions in these regions. The EU knows that and that is why it suspended the full implementation of the Ukrainian association agreement from September 2014 until December 2015.

These association agreements are attempts to move closer to one bloc of countries at the expense of others. This either-or, take-it-or-leave-it type of deal is unhelpful economically, socially and politically.

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