Joe O'Reilly on Corruption, EU Accession and Ukraine Aid

Thank you Deputy Chair and welcome to our guests and a special welcome to my colleague who sits beside me at the Council of Europe, Alina. We sit near each other at the Council of Europe and she's a very articulate and excellent performer there. I don't know if she's hearing me properly but anyway. I want also to join our former Deputy Speaker of our Irish Parliament, our former Speaker of our Irish Parliament in saluting the bravery of your people. I think that merits repeating. I'll ask the first two questions together because they're related. You might identify, because for the Irish public listening, what you have been doing to improve your chances of access, of accession to the EU, to the European Union. We know that you have dealt with some high level corruption but we'd like you to explain what, in as short a time as you can so I can get some other questions, what you're doing about making it easy for us to get you in there, which is the Irish position. And secondly, we'd like to, I'd like to ask you related to that, what we can do during the Irish Presidency, apart from advancing your accession, what other practical steps would you envisage us being able to take to assist you during the Irish Presidency? If you could take those first, please. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy. Chairman? Yes, thank you. I'm glad that you have raised an issue of our struggle against high level corruption. Interestingly, you know, there sometimes people think that when they see the examples of the struggle, this fight against high level corruption, they think, okay, we're dealing with a corrupt state. In reality, this is an indication that we are very serious about fighting against corruption. Thanks to our President and our Parliament also, we have created anti-corruption infrastructure, which is absolutely independent. And there is now in Ukraine, no one is above the law. Anyone can be brought to justice on the charges of corruption, including members of Parliament. We have cases like that, member of the government and so on. No one is above the law. And this is a sign of healthy society. Society, which is not, I would say, it's a sign that we are serious and we're fighting seriously against corruption. You cannot imagine something like that, for example, in Russia or in many other states, that no one, that everyone can be brought to justice, no matter how well he or she is. That's why it's, in practical terms, with regard to the EU accession, yeah, we need your support, first of all, to start with opening the first cluster. Yes. And we need also, again, I'm not an expert on the EU law. We have special separate committee on that. And they would be sort of more informative about that. They're more knowledgeable. But I believe that for me, it is, we have strong political will, our Parliament and our President and our government. We have strong political will to do everything, to adapt our legal system to to do everything we can. And we're doing this. Thank you. There's another question. If you could give me an assessment of where you see American initiatives now. Do you think America, I know they're distracted by Iran, but where does America, how do you assess what America is trying to do now? And have there been any recent American initiatives in terms of a peace process? Yeah, what can be done to revert back to the initial Mr. Trump's idea about unconditional ceasefire, to deliver on his promises, to deliver, to follow through on his promises. He said very distinctly that I have this plan, unconditional ceasefire, and if Ukraine or Russia disagrees, there will be serious consequences. I quote him. Ukraine has agreed to that unconditional ceasefire. And that's the only way how the war can be stopped. So he just, he should just follow on his promises. But I would like to stress to emphasize that for us, the United States means our close partner and close friend, because luckily it's democracy. It has strong democratic institutions. We enjoy bipartisan support in the Congress. American public opinion is also firmly on the side of Ukraine, and we value very highly our American friends. Okay. Can I ask you, given that the Center for Strategic and International Studies have assessed that Russia has lost 1.2 million persons in the war, can you, do you think the Russian public will go on accepting that? And do you think that Russia will soon, surely Russia will not be able to go on with that and not want to go on beyond Ukraine for the wars? At what point will the Russian public cease to accept it, do you think? I see a colleague suggesting that there's no time that wouldn't, but let's, what's your assessment? You have one minute. Sorry. Can you hear? Can you hear us? Because of interruptions, unfortunately, I have missed the question. Maybe Lisa can answer. If the Russians have lost 1.2 million people in the war, how long can they go on with that? How long will the Russian public accept that? How long will the Russian system? Unfortunately, the screen was frozen for a couple of minutes. I'll ask Lisa to answer the question, because I think she heard it fully. Yes. Yes, I've heard it. Well, unfortunately, Russia is huge, and the question of the number of people doesn't really matter for them. Yes, it creates problem for mobilization. For Putin, we are aware of that. This is what our intelligence shows. But still, the only way when Russian people will feel that they don't, for Putin, we are aware of that. This is what our intelligence shows. But still, the only way when Russian people will feel that they don't like this war is only when economically it will not be pleasant for them. So, at this stage, still, so there are signs that Russian economy is not in a good shape. But still, it's very far from the moment when the real war machine can stop. That's why we always advocate for more sanctions that target the Russian war machine. Because we need to make sure that they will not be able to produce weapons, or they will not have people to produce weapons, or they will be scared. Are we there yet? No, we are not. Last question. Very briefly, the reconstruction, could you again address the reconstruction of Ukraine? What steps and what do you think we can do in that space? I'll ask Lisa to answer that because it's a question that's been asked already. Well, we have a number of reconstruction recovery conferences when all the priorities is there. Well, of course, starting with all the infrastructure, energy questions, ending with rebuilding the cities. But I, on my personal level, also want to emphasize human recovery. So, any programs, any assistance, any cooperation, when we actually can cover human recovery with health, with education, with culture, this would be very, very valuable. Because every Ukrainian family felt a lot of damage of the war on them. And we need completely new societies with inclusions, with a lot of new things. Many people are still in a very good resilient shape. But it doesn't mean that the whole infrastructure and education and health is covering all the needs that we unfortunately have. Thank you.