The President of the European Council, António Costa is in Dublin today for an official visit ahead of an EU summit next week, and Ireland assuming the rotating presidency next year.
Costa said the visit was part of his tour of Europe to “gather the views of EU leaders and to discuss the main political priorities and working methods of the European Council.”
During their meeting at Government Buildings, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and President Costa are expected to discuss the war in Ukraine following President Zelenskyy’s visit to Ireland last week and to Brussels on Monday night.
Yesterday, the Taoiseach co-signed a Costa and European Commission President Ursula urging the EU to commit to a reparation loan for Ukraine.
The loan is controversial because it will effectively be taken from billions of Euro in confiscated Russian assets held in EU financial institutions.
But Micheál Martin, along with the prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden said there was a pressing and urgent need to meet Ukraine’s “budgetary and military needs”.
The meeting with President Costa also comes as relations with the US government are once again on shaky grounds.
The White House National Security Strategy, published last week, suggested that the European Union undermined “political liberty and sovereignty and was “transforming the [European] continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition”.
Yesterday, Costa criticised that document in a speech in Paris warning Trump:
“Allies do not threaten to interfere in the democratic life or the domestic political choices of these allies. They respect them. They respect each other’s sovereignty.”
Aside from pressing international affairs, Costa and Martin are expected to look ahead to Ireland taking over the rotating presidency of the European Council in July next year.
Ahead of the meeting, the Taoiseach said:
“I look forward to welcoming António Costa to Government Buildings for an important conversation on many of the pressing items on the European Council agenda.
“Following President Zelenskyy’s historic visit to Ireland this week, we will discuss US-led peace efforts and the need to step up our support for Ukraine across all strands, including financially. We will also discuss the need to maintain pressure on Russia to end the war, including through sanctions.
“We will also review the situation in the Middle East following the adoption of the recent UN resolution on Gaza and how the EU is helping to underpin the ceasefire agreement and can help to secure a lasting peace based on the two-state solution.
“I will brief President Costa on our preparations for assuming the presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of next year. Accelerating our work to secure the Union’s future competitiveness as well as advancing negotiations on the Union’s next seven-year budget will be important priorities for Ireland’s presidency.”