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

Next week I will attend the December European Council meeting in Brussels. The agenda for the meeting will cover Russia-Ukraine, energy and economy, security and defence, 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 southern neighbourhood. I will address all other issues.

Before turning to the agenda of the European Council I would like briefly to update the House on my participation in the European Union-western Balkans summit which took place in Tirana, Albania yesterday. This was the first time that such a summit has taken place in the western Balkan region. It was historically symbolic to the wider European neighbourhood as a clear signal of the importance and investment that both the European Union and the western Balkans are making in our partnership. In advance of the summit the European Union drafted a declaration, the Tirana declaration, setting out our commitment to, and perspective on, our increasingly important political, economic and people-to-people relationship with the western Balkans, including currently as across our Continent we contend with and stand together in the face of Russia's illegal war on Ukraine. I am pleased that in the context of yesterday's summit, the six western Balkans leaders decided to align themselves with the Tirana declaration in a demonstration of growing shared interests, understandings and perspectives. Over the coming period I hope to see the leaders of the western Balkans working together additionally, supported by the European Union, to promote closer regional co-operation and to consolidate and strengthen regional peace across the western Balkans. This is the best way to advance the region's collective European Union perspective and the best basis for further prosperity, quality of life and opportunities across the region, in particular for youth.

I would also like to inform the House on my planned participation in the European Union-Association of Southeast Asian Nations, EU-ASEAN, summit in Brussels next Wednesday, on the eve of the European Council. The summit will bring together European Union leaders and their counterparts from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, marking 45 years of EU-ASEAN relations. We now enjoy a strategic partnership and will be progressing our shared plan under three pillars: political security, economic and socio-cultural.

When we meet at the European Council next week, European Union leaders will again, as we have done on every occasion we have met since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, discuss our joint response to Russia's illegal, immoral and unjustifiable aggression. When we last met in October, we agreed that the European Union will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We remain united in our full support for Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognised borders. It is now particularly pressing to intensify the provision of humanitarian and civil protection assistance to Ukraine, including in kind, and assist in the restoration of Ukraine's critical infrastructure to help people in Ukraine to cope this winter. Power and water facilities as well as other civilian infrastructure throughout Ukraine have been deliberately targeted by Russian missile attacks and drone strikes. I condemn these cynical, inhumane and brutal actions without reservation. I am pleased that Ireland has been able to contribute equipment to support the electricity supply sector via the European Union civil protection mechanism.

I am pleased also that the €25 million committed by the Government last month in institutional support for the stability of the Government of Ukraine to mitigate the impact of Russia's war will begin to be dispersed this month. Leaders will also discuss political and military support for Ukraine. I am hopeful that a ninth package of sanctions will be agreed before we meet. I have consistently supported the strongest possible sanctions and will continue to do so.

There will be a particular focus in our discussion on the issue of accountability, including ways to secure accountability for the crime of aggression. Perpetrators must and will be held to account. We will also take stock of options to use frozen assets to support Ukraine's reconstruction and for the purposes of reparation.

Russia's aggression has had a particular impact on neighbouring Moldova in a complex way, especially in respect of energy security. In response, the Government recently agreed €5 million in institutional support for the stability of the Government of Moldova to assist them and their people in tackling these challenges.

In October, the European Council had a very important discussion on energy in the context of high prices and supply constraints. We will return to this issue again next week to provide further guidance for the period ahead. Of course, the most pressing issue facing citizens is the very high cost of energy. Governments across the Union have over the course of the year taken a range of measures to ease the burden on families and businesses. In November, the European Commission proposed a market correction mechanism which aims to protect citizens and businesses from excessively high gas prices. It is intended to address very high price peaks through a cap, in certain circumstances, on the prices of specific transactions on the Dutch Title Transfer Facility, TTF. The details of this proposal are still being discussed, with EU Energy Ministers due to meet again next week to consider the matter further. Two other emergency regulations are close to finalisation and will provide for enhanced solidarity and better co-ordination of gas purchases and for the accelerated deployment of renewable energy.

At our meeting, European Union leaders will discuss progress on this package of measures, which are aimed at bringing improved stability and predictability to the energy market. As I have emphasised previously, proposals in this area are complex and need to take into account differing national circumstances, energy mixes and security of supply. Our discussions will also include a focus on strengthening co-ordination ahead of next winter, and on ensuring that member states can work as effectively as possible together, over the course of next year, on issues such as gas demand aggregation, joint purchasing of gas and the efficient filling of gas storage facilities. We will also emphasise the importance of early preparation of contingency plans and reflect on planned deeper reforms of the European Union electricity market. We will also discuss economic issues more generally, with protecting households and businesses remaining our immediate priority, in particular the most vulnerable in our societies. We will re-emphasise the importance of a co-ordinated policy response across the Union, using all relevant tools at national and European Union level to enhance the resilience of our economies while preserving Europe's global competitiveness and the integrity of the Single Market.

The European Commission launched the 2023 European semester cycle of economic policy co-ordination on 22 November with its presentation of the annual sustainable growth survey. This is informed by its latest economic forecast pointing to a much more challenging period for the European Union economy in the period ahead, following a relatively strong performance. The Commission is forecasting GDP growth falling to 0.3% in 2023, with inflation declining but remaining high at 7%. The latest indicators from Eurostat show euro area inflation moderating slightly, but still at 10% in November. The four priorities under the European semester remain promoting environmental sustainability, productivity, fairness and macroeconomic stability, with a view to fostering competitive sustainability. It is the right emphasis at this time, reinforced by national recovery and resilience plans supporting the twin green and digital transitions. The Commission also adopted a communication on 9 November setting out orientations for a reformed European Union economic governance framework. The overall emphasis is on simplifying the fiscal rules, including through the use of the net expenditure path as the main operational indicator. While many specific details on how the new framework would work in practice remain to be ironed out, we see the Commission's communication as a solid starting point for these more detailed discussions by Finance Ministers in the period ahead.

The European Council will take stock of work to implement the Strategic Compass. The focus is likely to be on ways to ensure more collaborative investments and joint procurement. The Strategic Compass, approved by the Foreign Affairs Council and endorsed by the European Council in March of this year, outlines the way forward for the EU in the field of security and defence over the course of the next ten years. The intention is to incentivise, through the award of EU grants, co-operation on a voluntary basis between interested member states for the common procurement of the most urgent and critical defence products. This kind of procurement co-operation is a particularly valuable opportunity for smaller member states such as Ireland.

Spending on defence and security is a national competence and decisions in relation to increased funding for defence are, in the first instance, for each member state to decide for itself. At national level, the Government took a decision in June, based on the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, to increase significantly spending on defence, rising from €1.1 billion to €1.5 billion in 2022 prices by 2028. This marks the largest increase in defence funding in the history of the Irish State.

Leaders are likely to endorse a political decision to ensure the financial sustainability of the European Peace Facility, EPF, and a possible increase to the current ceiling for the facility given the unprecedented mobilisation to support Ukraine, with approximately 86% of the EPF ceiling, originally set for a period of seven years, now already committed. Discussions on the exact modalities of any increase are ongoing at official level and will continue at the Foreign Affairs Council on 12 December. Ireland has been strongly supportive of both the continued provision of EPF assistance to Ukraine and of the need to maintain the level of ambition in terms of preventing conflicts and building peace in other areas of the globe, particularly in Africa.

The European Council will also hold a strategic discussion on transatlantic relations. The first EU-US summit in seven years took place on 15 June 2021, marking the beginning of a renewed transatlantic partnership. The EU-US Trade and Technology Council, which was established to co-ordinate approaches to key global trade, economic and technology issues and to deepen transatlantic trade and economic relations based on shared values, met for the third time earlier this week. The European Union and the United States are each other's most important trade and investment partner. Despite the impact of Covid-19, European Union and US companies traded goods and services worth €975 billion in 2020. The investment partnership is worth around €4 trillion. European Union companies in the US and US companies in Europe are together employing 9.9 million people and supporting many more jobs indirectly. Our shared goal is an effective and impactful complementary digital and green transition. In that context, the European Union has expressed reservations about the US Government's Inflation Reduction Act, and its potential to exclude European Union companies from the market at precisely the time we should be pulling together to manage the green transition. Next week will be an opportunity to discuss this issue and to endorse a way forward for Europe. I am keen in particular to see the joint taskforce established to look at issues with the US Inflation Reduction Act given space to progress its work.

As I said at the outset of my remarks, the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, will address the remaining external relations issues on the agenda in his wrap-up statement later this afternoon.

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