President Connolly to attend European presidents meeting

President Catherine Connolly is meeting with 11 European presidents in Ljubljana, Slovenia in what she has said is a 'timely opportunity to reflect on the global crises facing us'.

This will mark President Connolly’s first ‘Arraiolos Group’ meeting of non-executive Heads of State from across Europe. It is the 21st time the group has met.

The theme of this year’s meeting is, ‘The European Union in an Age of Multiple Crises: Between Retreat and Resilience’.

The presidents are expected to discuss the importance of nations working together, and the future of international institutions, like the United Nations.

In a statement ahead of the meeting, President Connolly said: "This important gathering provides us with a timely opportunity to reflect on the interacting global crises facing us - a world where 117.8 million people are forcibly displaced, where the gap between rich and poor is ever increasing, and where, fuelled by the profits of the military industrial complex, war has been normalised.

"Collectively as members of the European Union and as individual Member States we must ask how we have allowed this to happen and how we can ensure that we are guided always in responding to these crises by the values on which our Union is founded - human dignity, equality, and human rights."

The meeting will also be attended by the presidents of Austria, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Last night, President Connolly and her husband Brian McEnery attended an official dinner for Heads of State and their spouses at the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana.

This evening, they will attend a reception with members of the Irish community and affinity diaspora in Slovenia hosted in their honour by the Irish Ambassador to Slovenia, H.E. Caroline Phelan.