![\"Micheal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/taoiseach-greeted-by-french-president-on-arrival-for-talks-in-paris.jpg\")
The Taoiseach and French president embraced as they met at the Elysee Palace on Thursday (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\nTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin was embraced by Emmanuel Macron at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace in Paris ahead of a meeting between the two leaders.<\/p>\n
The Middle East, Ukraine and EU security are expected to be discussed during the engagement on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach\u2019s visit is part of preparations as Ireland takes up the presidency of the EU Council from July.<\/p>\n
The EU Council, representing the EU\u2019s heads of government and ministers, is in charge of legislation and involves gatherings of EU ministers with similar briefs.<\/p>\n
For six months, Ireland will take responsibility for planning and chairing EU Council meetings and negotiations, and representing the council in discussions with the European Parliament and European Commission.<\/p>\n
Bilateral relations between France and Ireland are excellent at all levels – political, economic, cultural and people-to-people – underpinned by our historical friendship and shared EU membership<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Micheal Martin<\/p>\n
About 30,000 delegates will visit Ireland over the six-month period, with meetings taking place over four-and-a-half months when the breaks over August and the Christmas period are excluded.<\/p>\n
Departmental officials are also finalising Ireland\u2019s policy priorities, which are to be published next month.<\/p>\n
Macron and Martin are expected to discuss preparations for the presidency and the focus on competitiveness, the EU\u2019s next budget and security, as well as EU enlargement, as part of Ireland\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n
The two leaders will also discuss international issues such as the conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Martin said Ireland would be taking the helm of the EU Council presidency at \u201ca time of great challenge and uncertainty\u201d in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to discussing with President Macron his priorities for our term in office and how we can work together to improve the lives of Europe\u2019s citizens and enterprises,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach and French president embraced as they met at the Elysee Palace on Thursday (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n
\u201cI will brief the president on our plans to focus on improving EU competitiveness, negotiating the union\u2019s next budget, and security. We will also seek to make progress on EU enlargement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also look forward to discussing global challenges, including conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
While in Paris, Martin will visit the Centre Culturel Irlandais, where he will announce the launch of a new archival project to improve access to historic documents related to Ireland in French archives.<\/p>\n
With the Paris branch of Conradh na Gaeilge, the Taoiseach will present a copy of the first English-Irish dictionary, An Focl\u00f3ir B\u00e9arla-Gaoidheilge, or Begly\u2019s Dictionary, which was first published in Paris in 1732, to the CCI.<\/p>\n
He will also deliver the keynote address at the conference, Tearmann thar Toinn: The Irish Language In Europe.<\/p>\n
![\"Micheal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779367629_333_taoiseach-greeted-by-french-president-on-arrival-for-talks-in-paris.jpg\")
Miche\u00e1l Martin\u2019s meeting with Emmanuel Macron comes as Ireland prepares to take up the EU Council presidency in July (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n
Martin said: \u201cBilateral relations between France and Ireland are excellent at all levels \u2013 political, economic, cultural and people-to-people \u2013 underpinned by our historical friendship and shared EU membership.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile in Paris, I am also looking forward to marking the deep cultural ties and shared heritage with France through a number of events at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, the home of Irish culture in France.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will launch the Journey To Europe: Archives Of The Irish In France project, which will identify and digitise material of significant Irish interest housed in French archives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis project will improve our understanding of our deep historical relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my keynote address, I will also reflect on the Irish language in Europe, both past and present, as we continue to promote our native language as a vibrant part of our cultural identity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin was embraced by Emmanuel Macron at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace in Paris ahead of a meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-460062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}