Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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138. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the position of Ireland on the future enlargement of the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34412/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has always been, and will remain, a strong supporter of enlargement of the European Union, provided that candidate countries met the necessary conditions for membership.

In March 2020, Member States agreed an enhanced accession methodology, which seeks to make the accession process more credible and dynamic, by clustering together negotiating Chapters and phasing in participation in EU programmes and policies. The enhanced methodology also recognises the need for more decisive measures proportionally sanctioning any serious or prolonged stagnation or even backsliding in reform implementation.

The European Commission published its Annual Enlargement Package and country reports in October 2020. In terms of the progress of individual Western Balkan countries, Serbia and Montenegro are both currently negotiating Chapters of the Acquis with the EU. Serbia has opened negotiations on 18 Chapters, with two provisionally closed. Montenegro has opened all Chapters and provisionally closed three. The country reports for 2020 assessed both Serbia and Montenegro as having both made limited progress. Serbia needs to accelerate its reforms in areas such as governance, rule of law and media freedom and make significant progress in the normalisation of relations with Kosovo, while Montenegro must address shortcomings in the areas of media freedom, fight against corruption and trafficking, and turn its attention to the closing of Chapters.

Regarding North Macedonia and Albania, it was agreed by the European Council in March 2020 to open negotiations with both countries. The draft negotiating frameworks are currently being discussed by Member States. Once these are agreed, we can proceed to the first Intergovernmental Conference which will mark the formal start of accession negotiations. Ireland warmly welcomes the opening of accession negotiations with both countries and looks forward to the first Intergovernmental Conferences taking place at the earliest opportunity.

Bosnia-Herzegovina has made limited progress over the last year and faces significant challenges to ensure implementation of the Commission’s 2019 recommendations in the areas of democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights, and public administration reform. Progress in these areas must be seen before the opening of accession negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina can be considered.

Kosovo is a potential candidate for Membership of the EU. The Commission’s report on Kosovo in 2020 noted that the political situation in Kosovo remains challenging. Rule of law, judicial reform, public administration reform, organised crime and normalisation of the relationship with Serbia are just some of the areas that must be comprehensively addressed in order for Kosovo to advance on its European path. It will be some time before Kosovo can qualify as a candidate country.

Turkey remains a key partner but continues to move further away from the EU. Accession negotiations will not begin again until Turkey reverses course on its backsliding on the rule of law and fundamental rights. However, the EU’s continuing engagement with Turkey in the accession context remains in the interests of the Turkish people and we must build a more constructive EU-Turkey relationship.

Ireland will continue to support the enlargement process and accession negotiations to the EU.