Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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146. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which all European countries continue to remain committed in full to the European project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4406/19]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government remains fully committed to Ireland’s membership of the European Union. Opinion polls consistently show that this is a view shared by the vast majority of the Irish people.

While I cannot speak for other Member States, I have every confidence in the commitment of our European partners to the European project. This has been re-affirmed on many occasions.

In September 2016, the leaders of the EU27 declared that “although one country has decided to leave, the EU remains indispensable for the rest of us”. They repeated their commitment to the European project in the Rome Declaration in March 2017 when they pledged that “Europe is our common future.”

In building this future, leaders have said that they need to focus on the expectations of citizens and give them a vision of Europe that they can trust and support.

Each Member State has been consulting with its citizens to learn about the Europe they want. Last year, the Government hosted a series of Citizens’ Dialogues on the future of Europe to engage the Irish public directly in the debate.

These consultations are expected to inform the deliberations of the Heads of State or Government at their informal meeting in Sibiu on 9 May 2019 when they will discuss priorities for the next institutional cycle, with a view to agreeing the Strategic Agenda 2019-2024.