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

Is there a future for Europe? That is my first question. I do not believe there is unless Europe goes back to the founding principles of the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights and freedoms and respect for human dignity and equality on which it was launched. Brexit and all the talk about it has allowed a space for it to develop and for the EU to take its eye off the ball in terms of the rule of law and fundamental rights in the EU. Some member states of the EU, in particular, Hungary, Poland and Romania, have taken concrete steps that undermine those EU guiding principles. These steps undermine the independence of the Judiciary, freedom of the press and of association. We are witnessing attacks on those who protest, whether on LGBT rights or a wide variety of issues. An extremely narrow right wing movement is starting in those countries. When in Poland recently, we met some activists who were attacked because they were peacefully protesting with banners which said, "No to fascism".

In Hungary, the European Parliament took a historic vote calling for the triggering of Article 7 of the European Treaty. Ireland has since been playing a constructive role in this regard, which obliges member states to challenge the Hungarian Government on those laws, policies and practices that are anti-democracy and anti-fundamental rights, but the Hungarian Government has stated that it will continue to do this. It also has an agenda against NGOs, especially those trying to highlight corruption. If the EU is committed to its founding principles, it will move this procedure on and call for the formal hearings of the Council with the Hungarian authorities for undermining the principles in Article 2.

An open letter from 12 accredited embassies, including Ireland, has been sent to the Romanian authorities in Bucharest, warning that them not to pass emergency laws that would risk weakening the Romanian justice system and their ability to fight corruption. We are witnessing a criminalisation of human rights campaigns in a number of countries, not only those I mentioned, and attacks on groups which are working on migration or academic freedom.

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The European Parliament needs to co-ordinate a response to that. This morning, we met a delegation from Oxfam. They spoke to us about the grim situation in Yemen. Their presentation set out the extent of funding from EU countries for arms to fuel the arms trade there. On the other hand, those European countries are sending in aid for humanitarian reasons. It does not make sense.

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