Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I had a read of President Tusk's statement of 24 October. He stressed the point that the leaders agreed on the previous Friday that the priority was unity among the 27 member states. His words were that his intention is to build on what connects, not on what divides. On the question of migration, the key message seems to be protection of external borders. I agree that there is a need for more support for those countries directly and immediately affected in this regard, such as Italy, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria, but what form is this support taking? That is the question we must ask. President Tusk referred, as the Taoiseach did today, to permanent structured co-operation in defence, PESCO. Alarm bells grow because that is not really the language we would expect when we talk about dealing with migrants, who are very vulnerable people coming from awful situations of poverty, hunger, conflict and displacement and, of course, we have an increase in the number of climate refugees now. President Tusk and the Taoiseach say they are supporting the big organisations - the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme - and I know they do good work, but it is the smaller non-governmental organisations, NGOs, that are at the front line of working with these people in very vulnerable situations that are not getting the recognition and support they need. We have discussed the so-called reception centres in Libya before, which we know are detention centres, and it is those smaller NGOs there that are giving us real information on what is happening. The Taoiseach said, and we hear this all the time, that we must tackle the root causes of migration, but that is more than just putting up a physical barrier so that migrants cannot move, whether internally in Africa or wherever or externally. It is a matter of examining the causes, and there is a need to monitor that and see what progress is being made. That is what the sustainable development goals are about, that if we eradicate poverty and hunger and the abuse of human rights, people will not have a reason to move.

President Tusk discussed Brexit and, again, there was a call for unity among the 27 member states and he said it was up to London how this will end. His words were "good deal, no deal or no Brexit". He said the common interest would be protected by the EU 27 being together but I fear, as do others, that the smaller countries, especially Ireland, will not be as well protected as the bigger countries. I know that our officials, our Departments and other organisations have been working extremely hard in the lead-up to Brexit to try to plan for something they did not know would happen at all and then, when it did happen, did not know what form it would take. Of course, we still have a lot of vagueness about that.

I return to Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union, which reminds us that the EU was founded on values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, respect for human rights, including the rights of minorities. However, we see more and more issues in this regard and we have examples where the EU has been lacking and its voice is not being heard, or it is a voice that is only being heard and not being followed up with action. These are the issues that must be taken up, whether at the leaders' section or by individual Ministers.

I wish to focus on one particular issue. It is a forgotten area and one that I hope can be discussed. I refer to the Golan Heights, which I know Deputy Brendan Smith raised. He is Chairman of the foreign affairs committee. We met a delegation, a human rights group in the Golan Heights, that pointed out the lack of EU statements on the Golan and the unavailability of EU funding. The funding is available for NGOs working in the occupied Palestinian territories but is not going across to the Golan. There are five remaining Syrian villages there. There is a general lack of knowledge internationally about what is happening to the people who are still left in those five villages in the Golan. We know Irish troops are deployed there but that is probably about as much as we know about the area. There is an EU-Israel Association Agreement council meeting which is about developing a broad bilateral partnership, dialogue, co-operation, mutual accountability and a shared commitment - I have read this in the blurb - to human rights and democracy, which includes the rights of persons belonging to minorities. The EU and its member states could speak about commitment here. We talk about the viability of the two-state solution but this area is not coming into it at all. We know the concerns about the expansion of the settlements. We know they are undermining the possibility of a two-state solution and that there are concerns over settler extremism and settler incitement. I am very aware of this because I have been there recently. The EU's funding is going into the occupied territories and Gaza. The EU-Israel Association Agreement is all about the occupied territories. There are references to Syria, Lebanon, Iran and the Arab minorities but there is nothing about the Golan, which has been taken over.

They are caught in this no man's land between Syria, Israel and Palestine. If we are committed to defending human rights, there is a need to consider the people who are living there. As I said, we met them recently and heard about the situation on the ground for people there. Some 95% of the Syrian population was transferred or displaced, so there is only 5% left. A city and over 300 villages and farms were destroyed. There are 23,000 Israeli settlers living on these lands, with the remaining Syrian population in only five villages. There are plans for the construction of further settlements which are illegal under international law. It is a fertile land with plenty of water, but the Syrian population in those villages pay up to four times more than the Israeli population. Oil exploration is going on and we can wonder to whose benefit that is going to be. There are also the remnants of the landmines from both the 1967 war and previous wars. I hope this is an area that could be addressed when there is an opportunity to do so at EU level.

One other question is that of multilateral EU funding and the lack of transparency regarding some aspects of that funding. While we know the total amount, there is a need for more transparency. We know about the European Development Fund and know that the EU development co-operation budget saw an increase, as did the European trust fund, but there are questions about exactly where all of this is going.

We had statements on Catalonia yesterday and certain aspects are very clear. One is in respect of the Catalonian culture, language and identity. The second is an acknowledgement of the very heavy-handed tactics of the central government in dealing with the peaceful protests and with the democratic right to vote. The third is the need for dialogue to resolve these issues. The question is whether the EU will provide that space and support for the dialogue and engagement.

Last Sunday in Geneva, at the World Parliamentary Forum, there was a call for parliamentarians to support the establishment of the UN binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights. This is very opportune, given our own report on human rights and business is coming some time in November. The EU has stated its commitment to human rights. The UN Human Rights Council established a working group to develop this legally binding international instrument on transnational corporations and business enterprises in respect of human rights. The aim is to put an end to the global loopholes so all companies are accountable when it comes to human rights and worker rights. This will be major because we see so much unregulated globalisation, especially in the poorest parts of the world. Again, will the EU be a supporting voice in this regard, given labour rights are being violated? The EU could be an active voice in this UN process. That would be part of the tax justice agenda in order to stop the illicit flows and profit shifting which deprive the poorest countries in the developing world of the revenue which they need for food and health. It is almost as if the EU is at times soothing its conscience in its development aid budget and not looking at the other aspects of tax loopholes and workers' rights. I see the next meeting of the leaders is about culture and education, which would be an interesting issue to debate here in the next while.

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