European Union
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
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Thomas Byrne (FF), Meath East

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.

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Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01