Aisling Dempsey
Question:10. Deputy Aisling Dempsey asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the way in which Ireland is progressing EU enlargement. [69008/26]
View answerThursday, 1 October 2026
Questions (10)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
I am taking this question on behalf of Deputy Dempsey. The pledge of the Government for this EU Presidency was that we would seek to repeat the successes of the past in substantially advancing the case of EU accession countries.
Given that many of the countries that lie along the eastern boundary of the EU have a binary choice facing them, between the EU and the dreaded Putin, I ask the Minister of State to give us a mid-term report on progress.
I thank the Deputy. I also thank him for mentioning that it is mid-term because today we are basically three months gone with three calendar months to go. We strongly support EU enlargement. It is a key priority. We have already secured significant progress on the enlargement files and we want to maintain that progress. The entire Government, including the Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and I are working every day to make this a reality.
In July, during the first month of our Presidency, I chaired the highest number of accession conferences in a single day since 2002 - we called it Super Tuesday - advancing the candidacies of Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova. On that day, Montenegro closed two extra chapters, with more than half of its negotiating chapters now closed. Albania entered the next phase of its accession process with the closure of its first three negotiating chapters. We also facilitated the opening of the second negotiating cluster, cluster 6, with both Ukraine and Moldova.
As holders of the Presidency, we are advancing crucial discussions on enlargement. We had the informal meeting of European affairs ministers in Dublin in September and I facilitated a discussion on new safeguards for future accession treaties. We are already getting into that phase of asking the existing member states what we need in terms of safeguards. This is a clear indication the process is moving forward and member states are starting to react to that.
Over the coming months, we stand ready to advance the candidacies of every candidate country, provided, of course, that reforms are implemented and they fulfil the conditions. That is challenging in some countries. We need, and will look for, EU 27 agreement, with every single member state agreeing to the closure of all remaining negotiating chapters with Montenegro by the end of the year. This will depend, of course, on the implementation by Montenegro of its reforms and the agreement of every member state.
We will also continue to advance the work of the ad hoc working party on the drafting of Montenegro's accession treaty. We want to close more chapters with Albania and we are working now to open more clusters, all clusters, with Ukraine and Moldova.
I would like to refer to three countries specifically. I acknowledge the foresight of Montenegro in adopting the euro many years ago and its commitment to becoming a member. Moldova has a new Government and is passionate about being a member of the EU. We know the work the ambassador, Larisa Miculeț, is doing here. I understand the Minister of State hosted the Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova here yesterday.
When it comes to Ukraine, while we are changing some of the circumstances of the huge number of Ukrainians residing in this country, the most significant thing we can do today for Ukraine is substantially advance its case for membership. There is nothing that would do more for Ukraine than membership of the EU. What is happening in respect of those three countries?
All I can say is that those three countries are on the list for major progress this year. As I said, however, it requires every single member state of the EU to agree.
Even this week, I have had quite a number of discussions, including with the Moldovans yesterday and the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister the day before. I am in constant contact with the Montenegrin Government. I have also had discussions with existing member states about how we can move the process forward. We are working very hard to bring more negotiating chapters forward for closure for Montenegro and Albania next month and to open a number of the clusters of negotiating chapters for Ukraine and Moldova next month as well. It is going to be very tight to get some of that across the line, but we, our Department, all the officials and our embassy teams are working very hard on it.
It is important to remember that all of those countries are extremely vulnerable in their own way. The Deputy is right that membership of the EU is the single best guarantee of safety, security and democracy for them.
Deputy Barry Ward asked earlier about diplomatic missions. The Minister of State referred to Serbia and the fact that we have a new mission there. I want to echo what has been said about our diplomats. The finest people we have in our Irish public service are to be found in the diplomatic corps, serving this country as great patriots throughout the world. I have never failed to be impressed by them. I want to ask, however, about the situation in Serbia because the death of Ratko Mladić raised certain issues from the past. There appeared to be a willingness in Serbia, a candidate country, to make a fuss and commemorate the man's death. He was a war criminal. Former President Vučić did not attend his funeral but a number of ministers did. Did the behaviour of people in the Serbian Government raise questions about whether Serbia is, in fact, today embracing the spirit and values of the EU?
As a matter of fact, ministers from a number of member states raised that issue at a number of the meetings we have had recently. What happened in terms of that funeral was simply not appropriate for somebody who had been jailed for genocide. It was totally and utterly inappropriate. We know, though, that in Serbia there is a part of the population that very much wants to have strong ties with the EU. The current Acting President, Ms Ana Brnabić, was Prime Minister when I was previously Minister of State for European affairs and she seemed to be a very pro-European person. She led Serbia's negotiating teams at some of the intergovernmental conferences we had. We did attempt, as holders of the Presidency, to bring some progress to Serbia's candidacy before that. It was very challenging. Many member states had issues, so that is off the agenda for now, I would say. Serbia is a candidate country, however, and the most important part of being a candidate country is that it has a pro-European direction and implements the reforms it needs to implement. That includes a commitment to democracy and the rule of law if it ever wants to become a member state of the EU or if it has that European vision we all cherish.