Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 269: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the position in regard to future enlargement of the European Union; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38701/08]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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With the fifth wave of enlargement, twelve new countries joined the European Union, on 1 May 2004 and 1 January 2007, bringing the total membership from 15 to 27. In addition there are two candidate countries currently engaged in accession negotiations — Croatia and Turkey — and a third candidate country — the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, with which negotiations have not yet opened. The European Council at Thessaloniki in 2003 confirmed that the other countries of the Western Balkans have a European perspective, and the EU has reiterated that their future lies in the Union, once they have met the required political and economic standards and carried out the necessary reforms to align themselves with EU law.

The accession negotiations with Croatia are proceeding well and the Commission's annual assessment on their preparations for membership will be published today, 5 November. Provided Croatia can maintain the pace of its reform process, it may be able to complete its accession negotiations by the end of 2009.

The December 2006 European Council set out the principles governing the EU's approach to enlargement. Firstly, the EU will focus on those countries to which it has already given a prospect of EU membership. Secondly, each step forward by a country in the process depends on that country's own progress in meeting the necessary conditions at each stage of the negotiations. Thirdly, the EU must communicate the realities of enlargement more clearly to EU citizens and must also take account of the EU's capacity to integrate new members. Each country is judged on its own merits, with the pace of the negotiations depending on the results of reforms in the negotiating country.

Although some member states, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, would wish to extend a membership perspective to their near neighbours — Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, such a move is not on the EU's agenda at present. Instead relations with the neighbouring countries of the Union are addressed under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which covers neighbouring countries to the south and east of the EU who do not have a membership perspective. The recent European Council instructed the European Commission to submit proposals for a future "Eastern Partnership" within the ENP to the Council in November.