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

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.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01