Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 to 13, inclusive, together.

I was very pleased to welcome the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, to Dublin on 8 March. Our discussions, which took place ahead of the March European Council, covered the Brexit negotiations, EU trade policy, economic and monetary union, taxation challenges posed in the digital era and a number of foreign policy matters.

On Brexit, we discussed progress in relation to the draft withdrawal agreement, including on Irish-specific issues. I stressed the importance of translating into the legal text the commitments and principles agreed in the joint report in December, including the backstop. President Tusk reiterated his strong solidarity with Ireland and said that our concerns were shared EU concerns and that Irish issues were European issues. We also discussed the EU guidelines on the future relationship between the EU and the UK, which were then in draft form and which took into account the parameters outlined by Prime Minister May in her Mansion House speech. I said that the draft guidelines reflected our ambition for a close partnership between the European Union and the United Kingdom while ensuring a level playing field in terms of fair competition and the integrity of the Single Market. I welcomed, in particular, the commitment to revisit our position should the United Kingdom approach evolve further.

On digital taxation, I said that all companies, including digital platforms, should pay their fair share of tax in full where and when it is owed. We are committed to global tax reform and we need an approach which is evidence based, sustainable in the long term and focused on aligning taxing rights with the location of real, substantive, value-creating activity. That is why we have been working through the OECD to achieve the widest possible international consensus. This is a complicated area and it is important that we get it right. In our view, short-term and uncoordinated measures could lead to unintended and negative consequences.

On the future of economic and monetary union, President Tusk noted the joint paper which had recently been published by the Nordic, Baltic, Dutch and Irish Finance Ministers and looked forward to further discussions at the euro summit on 23 March. We exchanged views on EU trade policy and agreed that Europe and the USA should make every effort to work together as we would prefer trade deals to trade wars. We also discussed EU relations with Turkey and agreed about the importance of continued engagement notwithstanding our concerns in relation to human rights.

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