Not many other leaders showed up to offer doorstep comments this morning – and can you really blame them, after they had just a few hours of sleep?
But Ireland’s Micheál Martin popped in to tell reporters that “it’s imperative that we continue to make progress” on this budget.
View image in fullscreenIrish taoiseach Micheál Martin speaks to the press at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium. Photograph: Laia Ros/ReutersBut he also made it clear that agriculture is one big sticking point, with some countries not happy with the proposed allocation.
“It was very clear that quite a number of member states are anxious to improve somewhat on the draft budget proposals around agriculture, but it will be very challenging because there are a lot of competing demands,” he said, adding that “there are [already] some who believe the budget is too high as it is.”
Martin also praised Zelenskyy’s presentation last night as “one of the more significant presentations he has made” to EU leaders.
He said – echoing the leaders’s statement – that there are no signs from Russia that it would be willing to engage with the proposed peace process.
However, he still backed the calls for establishing a diplomatic channel with Russia.
“There’s some distance to go yet before, before we get there [to negotiations], but opening up channels, in my view, given our own experience in conflict resolution, is not something that we would criticise or be negative about.”
