Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin spoke to reporters at the European Union leaders' summit in Brussels, Belgium, outlining Ireland's priorities on the EU's next seven-year budget, support for Ukraine, and the conflict in the Middle East. Martin called for stronger European action regarding illegal settlements, described developments in Gaza as unacceptable, and reiterated support for Ukraine while criticizing Russia's lack of commitment to peace negotiations. He also highlighted competitiveness, agriculture funding, youth mobility, and closer EU-UK cooperation ahead of Ireland's upcoming EU Counc...
What Micheál Martin said
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Micheál Martin, Ireland's Taoiseach, spoke ahead of an EU Council meeting focused on the multi-annual budget, the Middle East, and Ukraine. He said the EU must send a clear signal against illegal settlements in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon, and called for Commission proposals. On the budget, he noted many member states want improvements on agriculture, but competing demands, including security and defence pressures on the eastern flank, make agreement difficult. He identified the GNI contribution as the key foundation for the budget. Regarding Ukraine, he praised Zelensky's presentation and stressed that Russia shows no sign of wanting negotiations, with any talks needing to be between Ukraine and Russia. He defended opening channels with the Kremlin, trusting EU Council President Antonio Costa. He also discussed the UK-EU summit, hoping for progress on SPS, ETS, and electricity market agreements, and congratulated Andy Burnham on his by-election victory.
Key takeaways
Martin said Russia shows no sign of wanting to end the war in Ukraine, and negotiations must be between Ukraine and Russia.
He called for the EU to send a clear signal against illegal settlements in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.
He identified the GNI contribution as the key foundation stone for the EU's next multi-annual budget.
He defended opening channels with the Kremlin, trusting Antonio Costa, and said Europe is not mediating.
He expects progress at the UK-EU summit on SPS, ETS, and electricity market agreements.
Good morning. Looking forward to today's discussions on the annual budget, or the multi-annual budget for the European Union. We will obviously be listening more than speaking, coming into the presidency, to see the response to the Cypriot non-paper and to see where we take it from there, and we'll be listening keenly to the different contributions. And as I said yesterday, I think it's imperative that we continue to make progress on agreeing a budget for the next seven years for Europe, because it will allow for planning and proper development of the Union. Also, there will be a discussion on the Middle East at lunchtime.
And we are essentially looking for proposals from the Commission in respect of the illegal settlements. I think Europe has to send a very clear signal that what has been happening and what continues to happen is unacceptable in Gaza and in the West Bank in particular, and also in Lebanon. Yesterday we had a good discussion on the competitiveness agenda, and particularly the One Europe, One Market roadmap. Good discussions on that, and there was a sense that people were up for accelerating certain aspects of that, particularly in terms of SMEs and the European proposal, and in terms of the savings and investment union. So we'll take those files and we'll do everything we can to try and progress them as quickly as we can over the next six months.
Very good discussion last evening as well on Ukraine. I thought Zelensky really presented a heartfelt contribution, that I felt was one of the more significant presentations he has made to an EU Council that I have attended. And obviously there was strong support around the table for Ukraine, and also a desire to see an end to this war. But there is no sense or no sign from Russia that it wants to end the war. And as I've said repeatedly, there's too much conflict in the world, there's too much war in the world, and we need really a concentrated, deliberate effort to stop these wars.
It is an important subject across many countries. And in fact, in my tour around various capitals, 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. And the bottom line is that there are some who believe the budget is too high as it is, notwithstanding the separate reducing it to some degree in its negotiating box. But then there are other pressures in other parts of the budget. So it's going to be very, very difficult to resolve that fundamental question as to the size of the budget, and is it enough to meet all the competing demands? And there are additional demands that have come on the table.
In contrast, perhaps to the previous budget, mainly security and defence in that respect. And we know on the eastern flank that there is significant pressure because of an existential fear about the Russian threat, and then the consequent necessity to invest in defence and capability there, which has put huge pressure on budgets across the Baltic, some of the countries. So that's a factor. But clearly the two fundamental pillars of previous budgets, CAP and cohesion funding, are still very much on the mind of many member states, and that's something I picked up on meeting the various prime ministers over the last while.
Minister, just on the own resources, because do you have any red lines on that? Parliament wants a digital levy. Commissioners are talking about a company levy. Like, are there any red lines for Ireland given the number of tech companies here?
Well, going in as chairing these talks and trying to... Well, as the presidency, one doesn't have red lines, but one has our own national orientation and priorities. As I said yesterday, a lot of the own resources will be challenging. It seems to me there are objections across the board to different various suggestions. Some of the more recent ones from Parliament have got some initial sort of positive responses, but the Commission would have to work up the details of some of those. I think fundamentally the GNI contribution is going to be the key. I'm trying to find like a foundation stone for the budget.
6 more exchanges in this transcript
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Martin, M. (2026, June 19). FULL REMARKS: Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin Presses EU on Gaza and Ukraine Talks | DWS News | AC1F [Interview transcript]. DWS News. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2959115/
MLA
Micheál Martin. "FULL REMARKS: Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin Presses EU on Gaza and Ukraine Talks | DWS News | AC1F." DWS News, 19 Jun. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2959115/.
BibTeX
@misc{martin2026_2959115,
author = {Micheál Martin},
title = {FULL REMARKS: Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin Presses EU on Gaza and Ukraine Talks | DWS News | AC1F},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, DWS News. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jun},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/2959115/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
