Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the diverse agenda of the European Council taking place next week in Brussels. Following the events of recent months, which have seen the greatest movement of people to and through Europe since World War II, international and European attention has rightly been focused on the current refugee and migration crisis. An extraordinary European Council was convened on 23 September, which I attended. Building on previous European Council meetings in April and June, this considered both the immediate crisis and some of the broader issues around migration and our collective efforts to deal with them. It agreed on a wide range of issues requiring intense and urgent further work.

The European Council will next week continue its work on shaping a comprehensive EU approach on the basis of solidarity and responsibility and recognising the crisis points that exist around our Union. This will involve a further substantial discussion on migration in all its aspects, including follow-up on the points agreed at the previous European Council meetings. The Council will be briefed on the outcomes of the meetings with the Turkish President in Brussels on Monday and tomorrow's high level conference on the western Balkans route. It will also take stock of preparations for the Valletta summit with the African Union in early November.

Also on the agenda and further to the June 2015 meeting, the European Council will take stock of discussions to date on the five presidents' report on economic and monetary union, based on work undertaken by the Council and by the Commission. Again following on from the June European Council, where British Prime Minister Cameron outlined his general thinking on EU reform and the UK referendum on EU membership, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, will inform Heads of State and Government about the state of play of the technical analysis that has been taking place at official level. The president will also set out his intentions for the process ahead. I have asked the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Murphy, to address foreign policy issues in his wrap-up statement. Of course, the issue in Syria is directly relevant to the migration crisis. I will, however, now address the other issues on the agenda. I should add that the fact that this statement necessarily has had to be made somewhat earlier than usual means that the draft conclusions have not yet been circulated by President Tusk, nor have the normal preliminary discussions yet taken place in Brussels.

The issue of migration and the current refugee crisis has been at the centre of European discussion for a number of months. European Union justice Ministers met twice in September at emergency Councils in Brussels, first to confirm an earlier decision to relocate 40,000 people and then to adopt proposals to relocate a further 120,000 people in need of international protection. This means that a total of 160,000 people seeking asylum will be relocated to other EU member states from Greece, Italy and other states that may be hit by a sudden inflow of nationals of third countries. At the informal European Council meeting on 23 September, progress on taking forward the various elements of a comprehensive approach to migration, which were broadly agreed at our meetings in April and June, was examined. Outcomes included a commitment of some €1 billion in budgetary assistance to agencies such as the UNHCR and the World Food Programme, as well as renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the crises in Syria and Libya. Strengthening the protection of the EU's borders and better arrangements to process arriving asylum seekers in front-line countries were also discussed.

Ireland has consistently called for solidarity, both externally and internally, in shaping the EU's responses to the migration issue. We have aimed in our approach to be both compassionate and practical, seeking to alleviate suffering, as well as tackling root causes. I note that Ireland has been making an important contribution on a number of fronts to ongoing efforts to tackle the crisis. The Government has agreed that it will accept in the region of 4,000 asylum seekers and refugees overall under resettlement and relocation programmes. This is well in excess of any notional "quota" that we might have been attributed by the European Commission. This includes 520 refugees who we have offered to resettle from refugee camps. Some of these have now started arriving in Ireland. The decisions to relocate 600 people from Italy and Greece under the initial Commission proposal and a further approximately 1,850 under the subsequent Commission proposal were, of course, subject to Oireachtas approval. This has now been received and the European Commission was duly notified on Monday, 5 October, of Ireland's intention to join the two measures. The remaining 1,030 people will be taken on resettlement or on relocation, with the final breakdown between these two categories still under consideration.

We have deployed a naval vessel and full crew in the Mediterranean since June, initially the LE Eithne, then LE Niamhand now the LE Samuel Beckett, to assist our Italian colleagues in their international humanitarian search and rescue efforts there. Since May, our naval vessels have rescued 7,639 people. We are extremely proud of their outstanding endeavours in very difficult circumstances, and I know that everyone in the House and the Irish people as a whole are united in their admiration and appreciation. Why would that not be the case, given our history of coffin ships off Canada and the United States?

Importantly, we provide other supports to areas particularly affected by instability and conflict. For example, a total of €41 million will have been provided by the end of 2015 towards assisting those displaced as a result of the Syrian crisis, including through participation in a regional development and protection programme in the Middle East. We have also provided almost €36 million in humanitarian funding to Somalia over the past number of years. Furthermore, at the start of September, we committed to doubling our annual contribution to the World Food Programme from €10 million to €20 million per annum for the next three years. All of these measures have been supported by a swift response at home, led by the Department of Justice and Equality, to put measures in place that will facilitate the arrival of refugees to Ireland and offer a welcome safe haven for those seeking international protection.

The announcement on 10 September of the establishment of the Irish refugee protection programme and particularly the efforts of a new interdepartmental task force chaired by the Department of Justice and Equality are important steps in the Government’s contribution to long-term sustainable solutions to this crisis. An important part of Ireland’s response to the migration crisis is our participation in forthcoming high level meetings with a specific regional focus, both of which were also discussed at the extraordinary European Council meeting on 23 September. The first meeting, the western Balkans conference, takes place in Luxembourg tomorrow and will be attended by Ministers dealing with migration issues. This will immediately follow the scheduled meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council tomorrow and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Frances Fitzgerald, will attend on behalf of Ireland.

The western Balkans conference is expected to agree a declaration emphasising the need for solidarity and a collective response to what is a common challenge. In this context, Turkish President Erdogan’s visit to Brussels earlier this week, when he held talks with the presidents of the European Parliament, European Council and European Commission - Presidents Schulz, Tusk and Juncker - is significant. Turkey hosts over 2.2 million people from Syria and Iraq, so it must play an important part in addressing the crisis. President Juncker and President Erdogan at their meeting discussed a draft plan for strengthening co-operation between the EU and Turkey in responding to the migration crisis. This plan constitutes an important part of the ongoing political dialogue between the EU and Turkey, building on but going beyond the accession framework. It focuses on supporting refugees and their host communities in Turkey on the one hand and stepping up co-operation in combating irregular migration on the other. The Commission and President Erdogan agreed to take forward work on the plan quickly. There will be continuing indepth consideration of the issue as it affects Turkey and other partners at the western Balkans conference tomorrow and of course, following that, at the European Council itself.

The conference declaration is expected to identify five key common actions, including support for host governments and communities in Syria’s immediate neighbourhood, primarily Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey; support to affected transit countries; co-operation in the fight against people-smuggling and associated organised crime; addressing the root causes of forced displacement; and working with countries of origin. We are hopeful that the conference will contribute to making progress in dealing with this very complex and difficult issue.

A second meeting, bringing together EU leaders and our African counterparts, as well as representatives of multilateral organisations in the region, will take place in Valletta, Malta, on 11 and 12 November. This summit was identified by EU leaders at our April Council as a valuable opportunity to increase engagement with our African partners.

The purpose of the summit is to focus on the external relations dimension of migration policy and to find the appropriate tools to address both current and future migratory challenges.

The conference will seek to build on existing co-operation frameworks with African partners, many of which are countries of origin and transit, in order to address migration challenges to our mutual benefit. It is proposed to issue two documents from the Valletta summit, a political declaration and an action plan with areas of action. Arrangements for the Valletta summit, including the preparation of these outcome documents, are ongoing across my Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Justice and Equality.

At the upcoming European Council, Heads of State and Government will give further consideration to the report entitled Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union, which was published by the presidents of the Euro Summit, the ECB, the Eurogroup, the European Parliament and the Commission on 22 June. This is known as the report of the five presidents. At the June European Council, the report was noted and referred back to Council for "rapid examination".

It will be recalled that, building on measures implemented in recent years to make economic and monetary union, EMU, more stable and resilient, the report proposes a two-stage approach to further reform. The first is a short-term stage focused on boosting competitiveness, maintaining responsible fiscal policies and completing banking union, while the second is a longer-term stage which could involve more significant changes to the EU’s economic and institutional architecture.

Following discussions by finance Ministers at the informal ECOFIN in September and by social and employment Ministers at EPSCO on 5 October, the Commission is expected to present some definite proposals for stage one in the coming weeks. These are likely to include an in-depth review of the so-called six-pack and two-pack, which set out detailed fiscal rules in the framework of the Stability and Growth Pact, some reorganisation of the European semester, and a proposal for unified external representation of the euro area at international financial institutions.

Subsequent proposals are expected to focus on completing the banking union. Ways to strengthen the euro area’s focus on competitiveness issues and its ability to take an overview of its fiscal position are also being considered. There has also been discussion of ways to strengthen the social dimension of the euro area.

In general terms, Ireland is pragmatic and realistic about what can be achieved. As we see it, economic governance within EMU has been subject to major changes in recent years. The effects of these changes still have to be fully worked through, particularly at national level, where a considerable European dimension has been introduced into the framing of budgets. Our stated position has been that work must continue on fully implementing the current economic governance framework, rather than engaging in significant further initiatives.

Our focus has to be on practical measures for driving economic growth and the EU's ability to deliver for its citizens. However, we welcome the focus of the proposed short-term measures in stage one, particularly the completion of banking union and acceleration of the capital markets union, CMU, with the CMU action plan, which was launched by the Commission on 30 September.

As for the medium to longer term, as the debate on future options becomes more concrete, which it may not be for some time, we will continue to engage fully with partners and the institutions on the basis of our own national analysis. I welcome the recent hearings by the Joint Committee on European Affairs on the future of EMU, which represent a useful contribution to widening debate here.

Finally, I will just say a word on the issue of the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union. Firstly, I understand that President Tusk intends to update Heads of State and Government at the Council on the state of play of the technical work that has been under way in Brussels between British and EU officials since the June European Council. I look forward to hearing from President Tusk and to finding out how he sees the process advancing in the weeks ahead. There is an expectation that the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, will present his latest thinking on the issues he has identified at some stage after the European Council meeting, and the hope is that this will lead to a phase of more detailed discussion. The arrangements for taking forward that detailed discussion are not yet clear, but there is likely to be further consideration by Heads of State and Government at the European Council meeting in December.

I set out the position of the Government at some length in answer to questions in the House last week. However, I would like to take this opportunity again to stress that the place of the United Kingdom in the European Union is of real national importance for Ireland, and this issue is a strategic priority for the Government. I have made clear to Mr. Cameron in my discussions with him how much value we attach to the fact that both of our countries are members of the European Union. We are therefore watching developments very closely. Officials in my Department, our permanent representation in Brussels and our embassy in London are in very regular contact with British and other colleagues. We will be open and pragmatic when it comes to sensible proposals to improve the EU and make it better able to meet the needs of its citizens, and also to address specific UK concerns, although of course we will be fully conscious both of our own national interests and of the views of other member states. We will work with the British Government and all our EU partners to find a consensual basis for the UK’s continued membership of our Union. I look forward to learning more about progress next week and, of course, to reporting to the House afterwards.

The European Council will, therefore, address a number of important issues. I expect that, in keeping with the urgency and complexity of the situation, migration will dominate proceedings, but the discussions of EMU and the UK will also be of considerable interest for the longer term. I look forward now to hearing Deputies’ comments and perspectives.

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