{"id":527707,"date":"2026-07-01T14:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527707\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T14:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T14:20:12","slug":"ready-to-give-our-all-taoiseach-begins-irelands-eu-presidency-stint-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527707\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ready to give our all\u2019 \u2013 Taoiseach begins Ireland\u2019s EU presidency stint \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNow that the starting whistle has blown, we are ready to give it our all,\u201d Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has said welcoming European Council president Antonio Costa <\/a>to Government Buildings at the first official engagement of Ireland\u2019s six month EU<\/a> presidency.<\/p>\n

Martin pledged to work to make Europe<\/a> more secure and competitive, while promoting the EU\u2019s values, enhancing its competitiveness and working to accelerate the enlargement of the union. He also said that Ireland would seek to conclude the EU\u2019s next budget settlement by the end of the year. <\/p>\n

Costa, the former prime minister of Portugal who heads the European Council, the group of heads of government which is the EU\u2019s most important decision-making body, said Ireland was \u201cthe right presidency in the right time\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to questions, Martin played down concerns that Ireland as a neutral country and one with \u201clow defence spending\u201d could promote the strengthening of the EU\u2019s defence during its presidency. <\/p>\n

He said countries on the EU\u2019s \u201ceastern flank \u2026 see an existential threat to their way of life, from the threatening behaviour of Russia<\/a>, the invasion of Ukraine <\/a>\u2026 which many people in this part of the world wouldn\u2019t have that same experience. And it\u2019s important that we communicate that to our own people, that is how Baltics and indeed Poland and others see this. So we\u2019re very conscious of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Ireland was \u201cconstructive at all times\u201d on European security.<\/p>\n

Costa said that, \u201cOf course, Nato is the key element of European security and defence. But European security and defence goes beyond Nato<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both men pointed to the negotiation of the next EU budget as a key priority for the Irish presidency. While hopes are high the presidency can conclude an agreement on the next budget, Martin struck a cautious note, saying only that the Government would work \u201cto advance negotiations on the next multiannual budget, ideally, to secure agreement by the end of the year\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his prepared remarks, Costa said: \u201cI left what is, perhaps, our main common challenge to last \u2013 the next multiannual financial framework. We need to reach an agreement on our next long term budget by the end of this year. Not just any budget, but one that has the resources it needs to deliver on what our citizens expect from us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNow that the starting whistle has blown, we are ready to give it our all,\u201d Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7038,43],"class_list":["post-527707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527707","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=527707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}