Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McDonald spoke initially on the Brexit issue and the EU trade negotiations more generally and, in particular, on the Mercosur trade proposition. In my view, and I raised this at a recent EU Council meeting where we discussed climate change, there is an incompatibility in the climate change agenda of the European Council and European Commission proposals on climate change.

We will return to this in December when there will be a more detailed and comprehensive discussion on climate change in terms of the European Union's own targets and objectives and the more ambitious targets we want to set. The behaviour of certain countries, particularly Brazil and the government of President Bolsonaro in particular, has been negligent in respect of the climate change agenda and, in particular, in terms of the destruction of forests to make way for grazing on an unprecedented scale, which is causing enormous damage to biodiversity but also, critically, is impairing the world's capacity to deal with climate change. There are issues in that regard. From our perspective as a Government, we are very mindful of that and the implications of Mercosur being adopted in respect of climate change. Those are issues we will continue to pursue at EU Council level. Europe has always endeavoured to pursue free trade agreements. As a general rule, Governments are pro-free trade. The Deputies opposite may be against it. For example, we supported the Canada deal. I support the European trade deal with Japan because those open up opportunities for Irish companies, particularly the small to medium sized companies, and create opportunities for jobs to be created in this country. In terms of Mercosur, however, there is a climate change context that cannot be ignored.

With regard to Deputy Barry's points on the overall situation in Poland and Hungary, governments are elected by their people and they can pursue policies that we may not agree with in this country. It is important that every EU state upholds the right to protest and the right for opposition to mobilise legitimate and non-violent protest on the streets and to ensure that free speech and freedom of action and association are provided for. It is no secret that there have been issues around the rule of law in some states in the European Union. It has been a very contentious issue in at recent meetings, for example, on the multiannual financial framework. I am talking more generally in terms of the separation of powers within certain countries in Europe that has caused concern for others. Those issues have been raised at Council meetings in terms of the absolute necessity for civil liberties and the rule of law to be respected and for the separation of powers to be a core value of member states. That is something that we, as a country, continue to articulate and argue for and we will continue to do that along with other countries that have similar views to ourselves on those issues.

See this speech in context