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

There are clear rules and procedures governing how a President of the Commission is elected or appointed. They are tied up with the elections and there is a two-stage procedure. First, there is the appointment of the Commission by a qualified majority. The European Council will propose a candidate for President of the Commission but then that candidate has to be elected by a majority vote of the Parliament. The second stage then is the appointment of Commissioners and so forth. That is the reality of it. On whoever comes forward, there has to be a judgement on the broad range of issues which will confront the European Union.

On the humanitarian side, Europe is probably the largest contributor to humanitarian causes across the world, including the Middle East and Palestine and has been consistently so under successive presidents of the Commission. Sinn Féin never acknowledges this for whatever reason. That is why we have worked so hard to maintain both the development funding and the humanitarian funding from the European Union. The US is also actually a very big contributor to the Middle East on the humanitarian side.

Many who speak and who articulate loudly on the political elements are not as strong, at times, on the humanitarian dimension. All of the humanitarian supports which come from the European Union are just taken for granted and never get a mention from anyone in the Opposition. They are just dismissed. We should not underestimate and should have a balanced approach as to the positives.

I agree with the Deputy in that I did not agree with the initial response by the President of the European Commission. Equally, I have to acknowledge that the European Union, both Council and Commission, has probably been, beside the US, the largest provider of humanitarian support to both UN agencies but also to NGOs, to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, and to UNWRA in Lebanon, in Jordan and across the Middle East.

See this speech in context