TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR is in Brussels today and tomorrow as he joins other EU leaders at a European Council meeting with a host of issues on the agenda, including the war in Ukraine, border and migration policy, economic issues and foreign relations.
The EU leaders are also due to meet with NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. Stoltenberg has been meeting NATO country leaders in recent weeks, including France’s Emanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz.
Speaking ahead of the trip to the Belgian capital, Varadkar said he and the other leaders would “reaffirm our solidarity and continued political, economic, military, financial and humanitarian support for Ukraine” and “take stock” of how Europe’s security situation has changed since Russia’s invasion.
Strengthening economic security and the EU’s international competitiveness are also on the list of topics up for discussion, with aim of “making the EU a world leader when it comes to new technologies and the green transition”, the Taoiseach said.
Last but perhaps not least on the agenda is the subject of the EU’s migration and border policy.
“We will be working closely with countries of origin and transit to better manage entries, increase returns of failed applicants for international protection, and disrupt traffickers.
“In the round, migration is beneficial for Ireland, but it must be rules-based and properly managed,” Varadkar said.
Speaking to reporters as he arrived in Brussels earlier today, Varadkar addressed the subject of support for Ukraine and how it relates to Irish neutrality.
He made an effort to emphasise that the government are “happy with the text” of the latest draft commitment from the bloc to support Ukraine’s war effort, noting that Ireland was one of a number of member countries whose role in providing military assistance was distinct from those who are in NATO.
“So there has been some discussion over the last few days about the text. And the text, as it’s being proposed today, includes language that we’re comfortable with, specifically recognising that certain member states, including Ireland, have a unique position, and that position is one of military neutrality.”
“We haven’t signed up to any mutual defence clauses, and we don’t intend to do so,” he said.
“But we have made security commitments to Ukraine already, you know, like all the other EU countries here, we’re contributing to the European peace facility, which is helping Ukraine to defend itself.
“And also, we’re supporting them financially and politically, so we’re happy to make those ongoing security and political commitments. But what we can’t do as a country is engage in a commitment around mutual defence because that would breach our policy of neutrality.”
The prospect of Ukraine joining the EU and NATO was put to many of the leaders, as well as Stoltenberg, and most were of the view that Ukraine should do both. Ukraine recently gained candidate status for joining the EU and the country’s NATO membership will be on the agenda at the alliance’s next summit in mid-July.
Stoltenberg did say, however, that Ukraine could not join until the war was over.
The issue of how the bloc will continue its policy of discouraging migration in the Mediterranean is sure to provide plenty to talk about at the meeting, with the disastrous sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of people off the coast of Greece still fresh in the memory.
Talking to reporters in Brussels earlier today, the Taoiseach commented on migration policy, economic competitiveness and support for Ukraine, saying:
“Of course, there’ll be a discussion on migration as well, a huge topic of course, across the European Union, and we’d be very much of the view that we need to cooperate (and) work together, both to strengthen our external borders, but also to cooperate more on asylum procedures, returns, other issues such as that.”
Countries like Italy and Greece have long maintained that they bear the brunt of refugee arrivals on their southern shores and islands, and so earlier this month the EU brought in a plan whereby other countries would take in more refugees or avoid doing so by paying money to the southern countries.
Poland and Hungary, which were outvoted on the plan, have come out strongly against it and intend to have it discussed at Thursday’s summit, EU diplomats said. It also needs buy-in from the European Parliament.
Poland’s European affairs minister, Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said on Tuesday that being forced to pay other EU countries to host migrants was a violation of his country’s “sovereign rights”.
“A fee of 20,000 euros (per migrant) is de facto punishment,” he said.
Ireland is one of the countries that chose to pay.
The EU’s current migration policy involves providing funding, equipment and training to coast guard forces in countries like Libya and Tunisia with the aim of stopping boats carrying refugees from leaving the north African coast in the first place.
The policy has been a source of consistent condemnation from human rights as well as search and rescue NGOs as UN research has found the Libyan coast guard in particular to have committed various crimes and human rights violations including slavery, sexual abuse and human trafficking.
With this as the backdrop, the European Council will discuss providing aid to Tunisia, from which more an more people are attempting to escape across the sea to Europe.
Brussels is seeking to extend a tactic it used with Turkey in 2016, which greatly reduced irregular migration flows to Europe in exchange for six billion euros in assistance.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 11 June offered Tunisia more than one billion euros – 900 million euros in long-term aid plus 150 million euros immediately – if it agreed to meet International Monetary Fund conditions for an IMF loan worth nearly $2 billion.
The EU money would reportedly largely go to improving economic prospects for people in Tunisia. An extra 100 million euros this year is also to go to boosting Tunisia’s border patrols, search and rescue and accepting back denied asylum seekers.
But Tunis, though indebted, has balked at what Tunisian President Kais Saied called IMF “diktats”.
Tunisia, which is in the midst of an economic and political crisis, is not considered a safe point of return for refugees by NGOs who work in the Mediterranean, including Medicines Sans Frontières.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Monday that it was important for Europe “to try to address and resolve the financial problem” of Tunisia, “to ensure the country’s stability”.
At a time when Europe is experiencing fall-out from Russia’s war in Ukraine, “we shouldn’t forget the importance of the southern front,” the Mediterranean, he said.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, also on Monday, said Paris wanted to see the IMF deal sealed with Tunisia “because it’s in the interest of that country, which is a close country and a friendly one”.
France has separately announced 26 million euros in aid to Tunisia to help curb departures by irregular migrants across the Mediterranean.
Many of the migrants coming from Tunisia originate from sub-Saharan Africa. The country is also in the grip of a worsening economic crisis that has pushed many of its citizens to take desperate measures in search of better lives abroad.
The International Organization for Migration says 2,406 migrants died or disappeared in the Mediterranean in 2022, while 1,166 deaths or disappearance were recorded since the start of 2023.
The first quarter of this year was the deadliest in the central Mediterranean since 2017.
With additional reporting from AFP
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