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

I will return to the issues I brought up last week when we made pre-European Council meeting statements. The first is the situation in Myanmar and the role the EU could play there. We know what is happening to minority groups in Rakhine State, Kachin State and Shan State and the EU has a role. In a reply to a parliamentary question, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, said Ireland is working with the UNHCR and the EU to put measures in place for investigating human rights violations and holding those responsible to account. When was this last discussed at the EU? When will it be discussed again? The peace process, which is funded by the EU, is just not working.

I will also raise the question of Yemen and the role of the EU. In a Topical Issue debate last week, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, acknowledged the devastating consequences for civilians. The UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Yemen, Lise Grande, estimated between 12 million and 13 million people in Yemen will be at acute risk of famine in the coming months if the conflict continues. We can take it as a given that the conflict will continue because there seems to be little, if any, effort being made to bring the warring parties around the table. I know the difficulties. There are a number of warring factions in the south who are fighting each other but they will come together to fight the Houthi.

In three years, the EU has given €438 million in aid to Yemen. The aid is vital. We can imagine what that aid could have done in Yemen if it was not needed to address the needs of those who have been affected by war. We are told the public health system has broken down. People, including children, are dying from illnesses that would be very treatable if it was not a war zone.

Germany has suspended arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. So too has Norway, while not being in the EU. Other European countries and the US continue to fuel the fighting. Where is the EU with one voice in confronting this? The naval blockade on the ports of Hodeidah and Saleef is violating international humanitarian law because the impact on civilians is disproportionate to the military benefit. That blockade is enforced by Saudi Arabia. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, said he raised these issues with the Saudi, Iranian and UAE embassies in Ireland but he did not tell us what their responses were. Ireland was part of a group driving a resolution by consensus to establish a group of eminent experts on Yemen. In the meantime the humanitarian situation worsens. It is very alarming to hear of NGOs working in the humanitarian field being under attack and shot at. The spotlight is on Saudi Arabia because of the very regrettable murder of Mr. Khashoggi but we cannot lose sight of the other aspects of Saudi Arabian involvement. It is time for the EU to call for its member countries to stop selling arms which are facilitating the war.

The EU has to speak with one voice at the UN on the arms trade. The EU being a voice against the arms trade is looking more and more unlikely because we hear about a comprehensive agreement between EU members that Britain and the US will have access to PESCO on a case-by-case basis after Brexit. Last May, a group of countries presented a document pushing for PESCO to be open to outsiders but others, including France, were concerned that opening that door to American and British companies would deny lucrative contracts to arms industries in the EU member states. That leads to the point about the EU Council spending a lot of time on migration and internal security. Part of it is stepping up action against the smugglers. I am totally in agreement with that because we have seen what their activities have led to. We know the cost that people are paying economically through overcrowding and fatalities. The Council says it will do this through co-operation with the countries of origin and transit, particularly north Africa. How does that fit in with EU values? Those values are under threat. They talk about the need to protect the democratic systems but we are not seeing that with the rise of so many right-wing groups and individuals in Europe.

There are concerns about this work being directed through the European external investment plan and the EU trust fund because there have been questions about the trust fund. While the EU says it is committed to democracy, I do not know that the policies on migration and defence are examples of democracy. The supreme irony is that all these problems and the conflicts in many African countries can be traced back to the colonial and imperial powers of countries that are members of the EU. While the EU continues to be a major funder of aid it is important that it confronts members in the arms trade that are creating the need for aid.

See this speech in context