Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

France and Germany are big and powerful states. I know the Minister of State said it is an independent expert group, but this is something small nation states like Ireland need to be very vigilant against. The Minister of State has clarified the status of that paper and I appreciate that.

On QMV, I recall listening to the then Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, being interviewed by representatives of the European Movement Ireland at a forum. On this issue, he said the European Council gets there in the end. It is not pretty, and it can be ugly in its decision-making processes, but it does get there and it does get buy-in from everybody. On our general approach to dealing with unanimity and qualified majority voting, I assume we are not enthusiastic about jettisoning the existing rules, for all sorts of reasons in our national interest. I would be interested to know what our general approach is in respect of unanimity versus qualified majority voting and changing this.

There seems to be a new impetus on enlargement under the Spanish Presidency and it seems that will also be the case under the forthcoming Belgian Presidency, having regard to what they and the Commission are saying. Is there a new impetus and momentum to dealing with enlargement once and for all in the coming years? Is this something that the EU and its institutions are now seriously applying their minds to, having regard to the situation in Ukraine, the western Balkans, Georgia and Moldova? Does the Minister of State detect a new impetus here or is this something likely to drag on for years?