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

I wish to raise a couple of issues in respect of the European Council on which I do not think it has been at all effective. The first is the issue of Spain and Catalonia. There will not be another meeting of the Council before the elections there take place. This is not about taking sides. The Spanish Government called the elections. There is a body of thinking that this is an internal matter between Spain and Catalonia, but I believe there is a role in it for the European Council. That role is to ensure that the elections are open, transparent and free from the kind of violence we saw in recent times. There is also a role for the Council in ensuring that there is respect for the results of those elections.

There are a couple of issues in that regard. One concern is that those people who wear a yellow ribbon going to vote may be prevented from going into the polling stations. There has also been evidence of pressure on the media not to give space to the Catalan candidates. Of course, that would be a violation of the principle of freedom of expression. The organisation DIPLOCAT has also been closed down by the Spanish Government. I hope the European Council would support the presence of international observers at the elections. My understanding is that it is not keen because the Spanish Government does not want this. It is most important that the results of the election are respected. If there is a majority from those parties that are in favour of independence, the European Council should encourage dialogue. Even if the parties opposed to Catalan independence win, there would still be a need for dialogue to address the very real issues the Catalan people have. Basically, the Council should be a voice advocating respect for democracy.

I draw attention to Amnesty International's report on deadly but preventable attacks on, killings of and enforced disappearances of those who defend human rights. The findings are damning in respect of states which are failing in their duty to effectively protect those who defend human rights. These are people who are defending women's rights and the rights of LGBT people. They are environmentalists, trade unionists, teachers, community leaders, lawyers, journalists and farmers. The list is increasing, as is the list of those forcibly disappeared by these states. We hear about the threats, the attacks and the assassinations but they are not being properly investigated and therefore perpetrators are not being brought to justice. What message does that send? Again we return to a UN declaration on human rights defenders back in 1998. It states we protect and we recognise the work of human rights defenders, but there is no follow-up when there are attacks on human rights defenders. One has to ask what the point of declarations and statements is if there is no meaningful action.

On the Jerusalem issue, Jerusalem is an important city to people of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. The recent announcement by President Trump has certainly not been helpful. It has led to violence in the area. It also undermines the efforts of Fatah and Hamas to reconcile and create a political vision for Palestine. It also undermines the recent ceasefire announced by Hamas. In a bizarre, ironic way, something positive could come from this. For the first time in ages attention is focused on the situation. For too long lip service has been paid to the two-state solution but nothing has been done to bring it about. There is no impetus or urgency in getting talks under way again and in the meantime, more land is being taken in order to build settlements.

Two committees of which I am a member met various Israeli and Palestinian delegations, all of whom are committed to a just and lasting peace and who want to live their lives without any fear of violence. Perhaps it is time for the EU to consider further recognition of the Palestinian state as an impetus to bring about further talks.

As regards official development assistance, ODA, from Europe, our ODA is focused on poverty reduction and the poorest countries but there seems to be a possible change in the definition of ODA in Europe to include expenditure on in-country refugee costs and peacekeeping, which would be a very retrograde step.

PESCO has the potential to complement NATO. There was a couple of hours of debate on the matter with the Minister at the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence and a couple of hours of debate in the House, which is very much in contrast with the level of debate, discussion and presentations in respect of the repeal of the eighth amendment or on our foreign aid policy and which led to the One World, One Future policy. I hope that at the European Council, Ireland will not present that PESCO is something with which everybody in the country agrees but, rather, that there has been much criticism of it and that discussion in that regard is not yet over.

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