Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 5 October 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs
Conference on the Future of Europe and the General Affairs Council: Discussion
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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First, we went through Covid so there was definitely less engagement in terms of physically meeting people, but my Romanian counterpart has been in Dublin. We have had a good meeting with her here. We opened the embassy in Ukraine in August of last year before anyone was talking about the war. I met the Moldovan foreign minister in December last year and was very glad to do that. I personally have text numbers and contacts for many politicians in North Macedonia because in my time as Minister of State I have built up those contacts.