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

I attended a meeting of the European Council on Thursday, 20 October and Friday, 21 October in Brussels. The agenda covered Ukraine, energy, economic issues and external relations. In his contribution this afternoon, the Minister of State, Deputy Thomas Byrne, will address a number of the external relations agenda items, including the forthcoming EU-Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit scheduled to take place in Brussels on 14 December. He will also address the western Balkans, including looking ahead to the EU-western Balkans summit taking place in Tirana, Albania on 6 December. I will address all other issues.

At the meeting of the European Council we considered preparations for the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, known as COP27, which commenced last week and is continuing this week. At European Union level, the launch of the European Green Deal in December 2019 brought new impetus to climate policy and action. The European climate law, as one of the elements of the European Green Deal, sets a binding target of a climate-neutral European Union by 2050 and at least 55% greenhouse gas emissions reduction in the EU by 2030 compared to 1990. The EU's strength is our solidarity as a bloc with the common purpose and shared vision of achieving a transition to net zero over the coming decades.

I would like to take this opportunity to update the House on my own participation in the world leaders' summit in Sharm El-Sheikh on 7 and 8 November. I delivered Ireland's national statement at the summit, setting out Ireland's climate ambition and the Government's commitment to supporting vulnerable countries which, despite having contributed least to climate change, are bearing the brunt of its impact. While the situation facing the world is very serious, I was clear that it is not too late to act and that it is realistic for our legacy to be a sustainable planet. While at the summit, I also engaged in a number of high-level events and round-tables, including on food security and on the sustainability of vulnerable communities. I highlighted Ireland's commitment of over €800 million to support nutrition over the next five years and over €100 million in response to the devastating drought and food security crisis in countries in the Horn of Africa. I particularly condemned the weaponising of hunger by Russia in its illegal and immoral war on Ukraine. I attended a round-table event hosted by the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, where I announced that Ireland will contribute €10 million to the Global Shield initiative for 2023, to protect the most vulnerable from climate loss and damage. This initiative is sponsored by the G7 and by the V20 group of vulnerable countries and is aimed at scaling up the finance needed to protect against climate risks in poor countries.

In my various engagements I highlighted Ireland's ambition to see progress on the issue of loss and damage. We need to see commitments entered into on previous occasions implemented, including on climate finance. Under Ireland's climate finance roadmap, we are aiming to more than double our finance to at least €225 million a year by 2025, with a continuing focus on adaptation and resilience to climate impacts, along with newer themes such as biodiversity and loss and damage. Recent disasters underline the need for Europe to accelerate the radical transformation needed to tackle the climate and nature crises and make our economies and democracies more resilient, our industries more competitive, and our societies fairer.

October's meeting of the European Council was our fifth meeting since Russia began its full-scale war on Ukraine on 24 February. The European Union continues to be resolute and united in our response to Russia's blatant disregard for human life, human rights, and international law. In discussing the latest developments in the war and their wider implications, we sent a strong message that the EU will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We are concerned about the death of civilians in Poland near its border with Ukraine yesterday. The Polish authorities are investigating the matter and we wish to express our condolences to the families of those whose lives have been lost overnight in Poland and since the start of this terrible war. We should be clear, however. Wherever it turns out the missile concerned originated, Russia is wholly responsible for the consequences of an illegal war that it launched and is continuing to prosecute against Ukraine.

At the European Council, we discussed the need for continued strong political, military and financial support to Ukraine, including for its liquidity needs, and how to step up our humanitarian response, in particular as winter approaches. In that context, I am pleased to confirm that on 10 November, the Government agreed €30 million for 2022 to provide bilateral institutional support for the stability of the governments of Ukraine, which will receive €25 million, and Moldova, which will receive €5 million. This is particularly to mitigate the impact on essential government services in those countries due to Russia's war. The European Council condemned the despicable and indiscriminate missile and drone attacks against civilians in Kyiv and across Ukraine and the devastating impact they are having on Ukraine's energy and other critical civilian infrastructure. We also welcomed the adoption of the eighth sanctions package on 6 October and underlined our resolve to continue to reinforce sanctions as well as calling for their effective implementation.

The European Council also discussed how to ensure the security of critical infrastructure. Since the start of the war, we have seen an increase in the use of hybrid attacks, including deliberate acts of sabotage such as those against the Nord Stream pipelines. These need to be met with a united and determined response. We reiterated our condemnation of the illegal annexation by Russia of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The European Union will never recognise such illegal annexations. The recent liberation of the city of Kherson by Ukrainian forces is welcome. The obvious joy of the population at the retreat of the Russian forces gives lie to the sham referendum held by Russia in the region in September. The liberation has, once again, revealed the depravity of the Russian occupation and the extent of war crimes committed against civilian populations. The European Council reaffirmed our commitment to hold Russia to account on such crimes and expressed our resolute support for investigations by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. We also discussed how to increase pressure on Russia further to get it to end its war of aggression, stressing the importance of a united European approach on travel visas for Russian applicants.

Ukraine will continue to need extensive international support after the war to rebuild and repair the extraordinary damage the Russian campaign is inflicting on the country. This will take a global effort. The European Council discussed the governance and financing of its efforts to support Ukraine's relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction ahead of the International Expert Conference on the Recovery, Reconstruction and Modernisation of Ukraine in Berlin, which subsequently took place on 25 October 2022. I am glad the European Commission has also since published a formal proposal on 9 November to put funding for Ukraine's current needs on a more structured footing, proposing a package of highly concessional loans of €18 billion for 2023.

EU leaders also discussed recent developments in Iran. In the context of Ukraine, we condemned Iran's military support to Russia's war of aggression, which must stop, and welcomed the EU sanctions in this regard adopted on 20 October 2022. Just as Iran is assisting an oppressor abroad, within Iran we are seeing unjustifiable and unacceptable use of force by the authorities against peaceful protestors, in particular against women. This too has to stop. At the European Council meeting, leaders welcomed the EU's restrictive measures adopted on 17 October 2022 against the perpetrators of these serious human rights violations.

We had an important further discussion on energy in the context of high prices and supply constraints. Leaders discussed the European Commission's communication on the energy emergency, as well as a proposed emergency regulation, which had been published by the European Commission in advance of our meeting. There was a strong commitment among leaders to accelerate and intensify efforts to reduce demand, ensure security of supply, avoid rationing, and lower energy prices for households and businesses across the Union while preserving the integrity of the Single Market. We called on the Council and the Commission to submit concrete decisions on a number of additional measures, as a matter of urgency, in areas such as voluntary joint purchase of gas, measures to limit the potential for price spikes in the natural gas market, and a temporary framework to cap the price of gas in electricity generation, including a cost and benefit analysis. We also called for progress on fast-tracking the simplification of permitting procedures to accelerate the roll-out of renewables and grids. Energy ministers are continuing to meet to examine these issues in detail, and I expect the European Council to return to them when we meet again in December.

As the House will be aware, proposals in this area are complex and need to take differing national circumstances and energy mixes into account. It is important to recall also that the European Union has already taken significant measures on energy, both to underpin security of supply and to mitigate the impact of the dramatic price increases we have seen for businesses and consumers. As a result, we have seen a significant diversification away from Russian fossil fuels and towards more reliable suppliers, including Norway, the United States and others. In advance of this winter, gas storage across the EU has been filled to well over 90%. As the only viable solution for the long term, it is vital we accelerate the green transition and step up investments in future-ready energy infrastructure, including interconnections and innovative renewable technologies, to enhance our energy security and meet our climate ambitions.

The European Council also took stock of the economic situation more generally. As highlighted by the European Commission in last week's autumn 2022 economic forecast, the sharp rise in inflation, in particular rises in energy, food and other commodity prices, is impacting a global economy that is still affected by the economic consequences of the pandemic. The EU is among the most exposed economies due to its geographical proximity to the war in Ukraine and heavy, albeit diminishing reliance on imports of fossil fuels. Although the Commission suggests that growth in 2022 is set to be better than previously forecast, the outlook for 2023 is significantly weaker for growth and higher for inflation compared with the European Commission's previous forecast presented in July. The Commission is forecasting GDP growth falling to 0.3% in 2023, with inflation declining but remaining high at 7%. Leaders will continue to co-ordinate closely in our policy responses, including to the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. I welcome in this context the amendment adopted by the European Commission last month to the temporary crisis framework for state aids, which will enable member states to continue to use the flexibility foreseen under state aid rules for emergency circumstances. Protecting households, businesses and jobs is our immediate priority, in particular the most vulnerable in our societies, while preserving the European Union's global competitiveness and the integrity of our Single Market.

At our October meeting, we also had a strategic discussion on the EU's relationship with China. The EU has long recognised China as a partner, competitor and rival in different areas. The EU co-operates with China, for instance, to address important global issues such as climate change and global health issues. China is also a part of increasingly integrated global supply chains, as we saw clearly during the pandemic. At the same time, this is a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, including as regards China's stance on Russia's war on Ukraine. It is also in a context where the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has reported that the restrictions and deprivations against the Uyghur people and others in Xinjiang may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity. There are also deep concerns about human rights and political freedom in Hong Kong.

The European Council considered how we can collectively best use our influence to shape developments.

Leaders also took stock of preparations for COP15 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which will take place in Canada in December, with a view to agreeing a new global framework to provide for the transformative change that the biodiversity crisis urgently demands. Ireland is committed to continuing to work effectively so that the European Union and its member states present a strong and coherent voice for nature and biodiversity to help bring about this change.

I will travel to Brussels in December for the next meeting of the European Council, when I expect we will again discuss developments in Ukraine, energy and the economic situation. We will also reflect on a continuingly challenging geopolitical context exacerbated by the war, hunger, economic disruption and, as so often happens at times of uncertainly, threats to democracy. It is only through the hard yards of collective thinking, compromise, innovation and persistence that we, as the European Union, can continue to chart a way through for our citizens and as part of a wider global community of values.

I will have to leave the debate for a little while.

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