Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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112. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when the next European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting will take place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22653/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I will attend the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday 16 May.

EU Member States are continuing to coordinate our response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine closely. This will be the sixth time that the Foreign Affairs Council has convened since the invasion of Ukraine just over two months ago and the discussion will assess the effectiveness of the different strands of the EU response. My officials have been intensively engaged in the preparations for this Foreign Affairs Council and, in particular, the proposed adoption of a sixth package of sanctions aimed at depriving Russia and Belarus of the ability to wage war on Ukraine.

We are also aware of the impact this conflict is having on other regions and the need for the EU to step up its engagement to help our partners. Therefore, the Foreign Affairs Council will also consider the EU's relations with the Western Balkans against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, and possible supports the EU can provide. We have invited the Foreign Ministers of the Western Balkans countries to join the Foreign Affairs Council for a discussion on these issues. This will be a fresh opportunity to bolster EU-Western Balkans engagement, to discuss the European ambitions of each country and to set out the expectations of the EU.

EU High Representative Josep Borrell will also brief the Council on his recent visit to Chile and Panama.  Ireland has requested that the situation in Ethiopia be discussed again by Ministers, as the humanitarian situation in the conflict-affected regions of Ethiopia remains dire.