Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. Fine Gael MEPs voted against extending missions to save lives in the Mediterranean. That is a fact that is on the record. It is a shameful fact.

I want to get back to my speech. The point on accession is very important. These negotiations have gone on for more than a decade at this point. I want EU institutions to be accountable. We should all want EU institutions to be accountable to the European Court of Human Rights.

One of the things that strikes me whenever we attend PACE is that a lot of good people say a lot of good things, but there is a gap between what representatives say and then what our governments implement in reality. We hear nonsense about illegal asylum applicants. There is no such thing as an “illegal asylum applicant”. Right now, unfortunately, the European Union is heading towards a “fortress Europe”. That is the reality, and that goes against the European values that are at the heart of the Council of Europe.It is important that this summit is given a chance. One concern I had was that some delegates from other countries were talking about organising the next summit, which would actually undermine the importance of this summit that all of us have worked so hard to achieve. Again, I pay particular tribute to Senator O'Loughlin in that regard. Let us focus on getting this summit to deliver fundamental change and a fundamental expansion in rights and protections, a fundamental expansion of resources and a fundamental expansion of will and determination to ensure that we strengthen the court. Síofra O'Leary said something very simple in her speech. She said that unimplemented judgments undermine the convention. At the heart of this summit has to be a new determination to ensure resources and new methods are there to really hold countries to account, and the five or six countries that are responsible for the 70% of unimplemented judgments, in particular.