Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I apologise. I had to be in three different places at once and I did them all badly. I am sure a number of people have covered what I will deal with. I imagine that the western Balkans and North Macedonia have probably felt they paid a high price, to use the ambassador's term, to enter negotiations. Could we get more information about that? It is fair to say the conversation about accession in recent years was not really serious. The war in Ukraine has changed the geopolitics and people are looking at accession differently. I accept that rule of law issues within the European Union were not dealt with, particularly in Hungary, which would have been a source of fear for many others.

We all see that the European Union has been a force for good, even with all of the mistakes that may have been made. On some level, it has been a bulwark of democracy against places that are not necessarily very democratic. Will Mrs. Bojadjieska Ristovski give us an idea of the difficulties she encountered before? How does she believe the relationship is progressing now? I believe we are in different circumstances with regard to accession. Beyond that, there are issues across the entire former Yugoslavia and further afield where international power plays are made, where there is an element of Russian gameplay and even an element of Chinese involvement. It is a very interconnected world. It is no different from any other time in history in that everybody is making a play. If Mrs. Bojadjieska Ristovski can decipher the three questions I asked, I will be impressed.