Podgorica, (MINA) – Ireland’s Europe and Defense Minister Thomas Byrne said that he would like the enlargement negotiations with Montenegro to be over by the end of the Irish presidency of the EU Council in the second half of next year.

“Alongside progressing the next EU budget, finishing negotiations with Montenegro “would be a job well done”, Byrne said on a podcast with the Institute of International and European Affairs, a Dublin-based think tank.

Although Podgorica’s candidacy was the focus of Byrne’s comments, he spoke in favor of advancing negotiations with all EU candidate countries, suggesting that he would like “ to get Albania further along and get them into a situation where they’d be in a year later”, the Euraktiv portal reports.