Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In fairness, the ambassadors have been straightforward in terms of what they want to see from the European Union, which is that there should be no more obstacles and accession should be achieved as fast as possible. Equally, however, both ambassadors stated that their countries accept and want to meet the Copenhagen criteria and the specific 14 reforms to be undertaken in that regard. I refer to what is on their to-do lists and the general timeline in being able to satisfy these requirements.

Given the circumstances we are in, and the ambassadors mentioned this point earlier, where energy security meets the cost-of-living energy price crisis, what engagement have Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina had with the EU? I ask this question because the EU is trying to deal with its own issues. These are different depending on the member state, and whether we are referring to Germany, Ireland, etc., but, collectively, we are considering block-buying oil and liquid natural gas. Everything is up for grabs now. We understand that in the long term, the real movement must be towards renewables. We will not, though, be able to do all that in time for this winter. We also do not want to give any sort of win to the Russians now. We do not want to restore to them what they are losing in the field through being able to deliver an economic knock to the rest of the western world.