Mr. Gay Mitchell, MEP:

I was the rapporteur for the development co-operation instrument which merged 16 regulations into one. It was the mother and father of all negotiations. The reason for that was because there was an effort by the Commission to grab power. It does not normally do this but it thought this was an opportunity presented by the advent of a new High Representative for Foreign Affairs. The European Parliament organised itself, said that it was not agreeing to it and across party lines, was able to stop it. For the first time, we put in targets, namely, that 20% of the budget would be spent on basic health and education. We organised ourselves to call that into account.

The real problem with the Democratic Republic of Congo is that it does not have a government. When we give aid or assistance to the developing world, it comes with some obligations. They do not involve telling people what to do but are obligations of good governance, gender issues and the targets are set. There is a foreign affairs committee and a development committee in the European Parliament, both of which have had exchanges with Baroness Ashton on these issues. She has been very active in respect of it. It is a very worrying situation. Rwanda has a particular interest in it. It will take a lot of time on the part of the European Parliament. Baroness Ashton is a very busy woman and is drawn all over the world in her position as Vice President of the Commission and High Representative for Foreign Affairs. In that role, she chairs the foreign affairs Council but she will come to Ireland from time to time. It would be very useful for this House to identify when she is coming and to ask her to attend and discuss these issues. She is very disposed and receptive to those sorts of suggestions. I hope I have dealt with the issues.