{"id":531854,"date":"2026-07-03T22:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531854\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T22:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:56:16","slug":"irelands-eu-membership-story-a-compelling-argument-for-expanding-union-von-der-leyen-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/531854\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s EU membership story a compelling argument for expanding union, von der Leyen says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland\u2019s story of European Union<\/a> membership was the most convincing argument for the continued expansion of the bloc, European Commission<\/a> president Ursula von der Leyen<\/a> said on Friday during a visit to Cork<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Ireland joined the European Community in 1973 the GDP [gross domestic product] per capita was around half of the European average, today it is roughly double the European average,\u201d the German politician said, standing beside Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Von der Leyen said she welcomed the focus the Irish Government has placed on pushing forward the membership bids of candidate countries. <\/p>\n

Martin and the Cabinet were hosting von der Leyen and the other 26 EU commissioners in Cork, for a visit marking the start of Ireland\u2019s presidency of the Council of the European Union<\/a>. The council represents the member states in the Brussels system and the presidency, or chair, rotates between countries every six months. Irish Ministers will, as part of the presidency, lead EU-level meetings for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

Montenegro<\/a>, a small Balkan state of 620,000 people, hopes to complete all the required internal reforms by the end of this year, opening the door to its EU entry<\/a> by 2028. <\/p>\n

Dublin has targeted the signing of an accession treaty between the EU and Montenegro as a symbolic win it wants to get over the line during the six-month presidency. <\/p>\n

Albania<\/a> is also well along the journey towards accession. There has been a fresh push to advance talks with Ukraine and Moldova, which are still at a very early stage in the years-long process. <\/p>\n

There needs to be unanimous agreement among the existing 27 member states to allow new countries into the bloc, which can be politically tricky. <\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s position on future EU enlargement was motivated by its own transformative experience after joining, Martin told a group of visiting Brussels-based journalists in Cork.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0EU presidency comes with opportunity \u2013 but also opportunity costOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the poorest country in Europe, many people felt we were too poor to join. It has had a transformative impact on Irish economic development, but societal transformation as well,\u201d he said. \u201cMorally how could we deny somebody else the potential of that experience?\u201d <\/p>\n

Ireland\u2019s EU presidency will largely be judged on the progress it makes putting together a deal on the union\u2019s next seven-year budget. At present, Martin said, EU states hold \u201cdiametrically opposing positions\u201d about the subject. <\/p>\n

A camp of fiscally conservative countries want to substantially trim back a proposed \u20ac1.9 trillion funding pot. Others want a more expansive budget, though there are disagreements on where extra money should be spent. <\/p>\n

Speaking on Friday, von der Leyen said there were high expectations for Ireland\u2019s stint holding the presidency.<\/p>\n

There is a desire in Brussels to land a deal where all national governments agree on a compromise budget before the end of this year, to leave enough time for the extensive technical work that has to follow a political agreement. <\/p>\n

The existing EU budget, which includes Common Agricultural Policy funding, regional development grants and a huge range of other funding schemes, runs out after next year. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0No Queen Elizabeth moment for Ursula von der Leyen during Cork visitOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

During a joint press conference with von der Leyen, the Taoiseach said many of his fellow European leaders seem to want to clinch a budget deal by the end of this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are both under no illusion as to how much work is required to achieve this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked to rate the chances out of 10 of a deal being agreed, Martin said he would put the odds at \u201cseven or eight\u201d. <\/p>\n

Von der Leyen said the ongoing investigation into Aughinish Alumina\u2019s role<\/a> exporting raw materials to Russia was \u201cfor Ireland to lead\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are waiting for the finishing of the investigation, and then we will discuss together the results,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s story of European Union membership was the most convincing argument for the continued expansion of the bloc,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11551,2244,1712,61,60,1843,193820,43,1713],"class_list":["post-531854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-albania","tag-eu","tag-european-commission","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin","tag-montenegro","tag-news","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531854","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=531854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}