merrion street

The Minister of State for European Affairs, Helen McEntee T.D., will visit London on Tuesday 24 October. During her visit, the Minister will meet with Sir Alan Duncan, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Robin Walker, Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union. The Minister will also meet with the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee and with the Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry MP.

The Minister’s visit follows shortly after last week’s European Council and will provide a valuable opportunity to exchange views with her UK counterparts.

Ahead of the visit the Minister stated:

“My visit to London represents an important opportunity to assure my counterparts in the UK of the willingness of Ireland and its EU27 partners to begin discussions on transitional arrangements and future relationship issues once there has been sufficient progress by the UK in the first phase on the exit issues of citizens’ rights, the Irish specific issues and the financial settlement. This is clearly demonstrated by the agreement among the EU27 to begin internal discussions on preparations for the second phase.

“I believe that now is the time to seize upon this positive dynamic and I will be conveying a strong message of encouragement to step up efforts to achieve sufficient progress in advance of the December European Council.”

The visit will also provide an opportunity to focus on the close bilateral relationship between the EU and the UK. In this regard, the Minister stated:

“I very much look forward to the opportunity to discuss a range of issues on our bilateral agenda. The Government has been clear that even in the face of Brexit, Ireland strongly wishes to retain its uniquely close economic, political, cultural and people-to-people links with Great Britain.”