There are currently six countries that have formally applied to join the EU and are in varying stages of the accession process: Turkey, Montenegro, Iceland, Serbia, Macedonia and Albania. Two countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, are in the pre-accession phase. Ireland is a strong supporter of EU enlargement and we believe it remains one of the EU's most successful policies, fostering peace, stability and prosperity in our neighbouring regions. We support the efforts of those who have made applications to join the EU and encourage them to fulfil the necessary conditions for membership, in particular the Copenhagen criteria (democracy, the rule of law, respect for fundamental rights and a functioning market economy) as well as the conditions of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
In terms of the progress of each country, the European Commission has recently published its annual Enlargement progress reports. Accession negotiations with Turkey, stalled for some time, were reinvigorated under Ireland's EU Presidency earlier this year and agreement was reached to open a new chapter in the negotiations. While the handling of the Gezi Park protests raised concerns, it is clear that the EU has a key role to play as an anchor for reform in Turkey through its continued engagement in the accession process.
Montenegro has seen progress on its path towards EU membership, following the launch of accession negotiations last year. First steps have been completed and two chapters (science and research; education and culture) have been closed. The focus is now on opening two key areas in the negotiations: judiciary and fundamental rights, and justice, freedom and security.
This past year has seen real progress by both Serbia and Kosovo on their respective European paths. In June, there was agreement to open accession negotiations with Serbia by January of next year at the latest and the agreement to open negotiations with Kosovo on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, aimed at bringing it closer to eventual membership of the EU.
The European Commission has recently recommended, for the fifth time, that accession negotiations be opened with Macedonia (which has already been granted candidate status) but it remains to be seen if Member States will agree to do so. The European Commission has also recommended that Albania be granted candidate status, following positive developments, such as cross-party support for key reforms and further steps in the fight against corruption and organised crime. It will now be for EU Member States to assess if sufficient progress has been made to grant candidate status.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a lack of political will to implement reforms is hampering the country's EU progress. Bosnia and Herzegovina have negotiated a Stabilisation and Association agreement with the EU, but this has not yet entered into force. Finally, there has been no recent progress by Iceland following the decision of the Icelandic government to put its accession negotiations with the EU on hold. Given the varying pace of progress in each country and the conditions-based nature of the EU accession process, it is not possible to predict when each country will accede to the Union.
The redistribution of seats in the European Parliament in advance of the 2014 elections, which resulted in the loss of a seat for Ireland, was necessary to take account of the recent accession of Croatia and to keep the overall number of MEP seats within the maximum of 751 seats set down in Article 14 of the Treaty. The decision of the European Council applies for the 2014-2019 term only and will be revised on the basis of an initiative to be presented by the European Parliament before the end of 2016. Ireland's position is that we would have significant concerns if future seat re-distributions continued to be only at the expense of small and medium-sized Member States, as was the case on this occasion.
Building on the success of the Irish Presidency of the Council, the Government is committed to maintaining a high level of engagement with the European Parliament, including regular presence by Irish Ministers at plenary sessions in Strasbourg for meetings with a wide range of MEPs and our own MEPs. This enhanced level of engagement aims to ensure that Ireland's national interests are represented and communicated to the key decision-makers in the Parliament, and this will include promoting our interest in a fair representation for Ireland when current seat allocations are reviewed again following the election of the new Parliament in May 2014 and in the context of any further enlargement of the EU.
