Ireland’s prime minister Micheál Martin suggested Ukraine could join the EU even during the war with Russia.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Martin said the process will be conducted on “a merit-based approach,” and insisted the EU “wants the war to end,” but the accession could still happen during the conflict.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected in Dublin today as part of the presidency ceremony.
He also told RTÉ that Ireland wants to reach a political agreement on the next EU budget “by the end of the year,” but he acknowledged it would be “a mammoth task.”
But he said the budget will not include more spending on defence than agriculture.
“Some [member states] who want to spend more, some who want to spend less, quite a significant number who want to protect the common agricultural policy, cohesion funding, and then new areas like competitiveness funding and research, additional money for research funding, which actually is the key to new products and new ideas of the future.”
