Susan Conlon

My current role in Europe Division deals with Enlargement and the Western Balkans, including Turkey. The region has seen many transformative changes since the Balkan wars of the nineties and the relative stability is, in some part at least, due to the work that the current five countries with candidate status for EU membership are undertaking to join the EU.

Membership of the European Union is very much the ‘beacon on the hill’ and we work closely with the Irish Permanent Representation in Brussels and Embassies in the Balkan region in monitoring and assessing developments as these countries strive to embed core European values, including human rights and other fundamental freedoms, in day-to-day life, and to improve their economic and societal prospects.

Ireland is a traditionally strong supporter of enlargement, and pro-actively supports candidate and potential candidate countries. In 2015, we shared Irish expertise with Serbia and Montenegro, which are both well advanced on their European path.  We also facilitate visits from Western Balkan delegations wanting to know more about the Irish system – they are particularly interested in public service structures and in economic progress: the Civil Service Renewal initiative and the range of measures taken to advance Ireland’s economic recovery are popular topics for sharing our experience.  Meeting with delegations from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia last year was a great chance to hear perspectives from the European neighbourhood of the value of membership and the progress made there in recent years.