Irish officials step up backroom plans for influential deal-making role for EU presidency

Irish Times

17-05-2025

It was a balmy day in May when the then
French
president
Jacques Chirac
,
UK
prime minister
Tony Blair
and Italian premier
Silvio Berlusconi
were ushered on to a coach in Phoenix Park in
Dublin
.
The year was 2004 and they were making the short trip between Farmleigh House and Áras an Uachtaráin, for a flag-raising ceremony with other leaders, to mark the entry of 10 new (mostly central and eastern) states to the
European Union
.
The event was the highlight of the Republic's six-month stint holding the presidency of the
Council of the European Union
.
A crucial cog in the labyrinthian EU policymaking machine, the council presidency rotates between member states and involves brokering compromises, to get the 27 national governments on the same page.
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The State is due to take over the role again in the second half of next year. Officials in Dublin and Brussels have been laying the groundwork for what will be a major diplomatic and political undertaking.
Running a successful presidency can boost a member sate's standing and influence inside the EU. A poor one can leave a black mark that takes years to erase.
Irish ministers will chair EU meetings on foreign affairs, finance, justice, agriculture and other policy areas, where they and their counterparts from the other 26 member states will trash out decisions.
You have to be an 'honest broker' between the other capitals, one EU source said. The country running the presidency often acts as the 'engine', keeping legislation moving through the system and unjamming blockages, they added.
The last time the Republic took on the EU council presidency was in 2013. The State was about to come out from the shadow of the bailout, which staved off financial ruin but brought years of painful austerity.
The presidency offered an opportunity for Enda Kenny's government to restore its reputation on the European stage.
'We were trying to turn a tanker around, to say 'we are still a player at the table',' one source involved behind the scenes back then said.
There was a huge focus on avoiding excessive spending. Tap water rather than bottled water was served at meetings. Cars ferrying visiting politicians around Dublin were kept to a minimum.
Running an effective presidency 'will be essential for Ireland's future position and influence in the EU', an internal December 2024 briefing stated. The briefing, drawn up by Department of Foreign Affairs officials, stated that 'significant preparatory' was needed to make sure the Republic did a decent job.
More than 230 meetings will be held in the State over the six months, including up to 20 gatherings of EU ministers and a large number of lower-level working groups involving officials and diplomats.
The State will also host a summit of the EU's 27 national leaders and a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), a wider forum of leaders set up after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Some 47 European heads of state and government will potentially attend the EPC, making it the biggest international meeting hosted in the history of the State.
Discussions are ongoing about where to stage the event. Holding it in Dublin is one option, in which case the Convention Centre could be in the frame, several sources said. That would necessitate shutting down large parts of the city centre for security reasons, causing major disruption.
The alternative would be to hold the summit on the site of a stately-home style hotel outside of the capital, with temporary infrastructure built for the 5,000 travelling diplomats, officials and journalists. That option poses difficulties getting people to the venue and accommodating them nearby, one Irish official involved in the planning said.
The Government has dodged questions about how much it expects holding the EU council presidency will cost.
'The actual costs arise next year and they will be significant,' said Minister of State for European affairs Thomas Byrne.
Documents seen by The Irish Times show officials estimate the costs will be in the region of €120 million to €170 million.
A Department of Foreign Affairs briefing released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request stated that hosting the EPC would be an 'unprecedented' undertaking that threw up 'significant logistical and security implications'.
One department source said they expected the Irish presidency would cost between €150 million and €180 million all in.
The bailout presidency of 2013 cost €42 million mainly because most meetings were held in Brussels. Those that took place in Ireland were limited to Dublin Castle. A temporary media centre constructed for journalists covering a meeting of EU finance ministers at Dublin Castle went through more than 1,000 litres of tea and coffee.
The 2004 presidency cost €110 million and had the feel of a travelling road show, sources said.
'It was certainly plentiful; it was the Celtic Tiger, all was good,' one said.
Meetings were held across the State, on more than one occasion in or very near the constituency of the relevant Irish minister chairing them.
The Office of Public Works were like 'roadies' building and taking down infrastructure for events. 'They could have done Taylor Swift's world tour after the six months,' a source who worked on the 2004 presidency said.
Department officials initially seemed to envisage that the Republic's 2026 turn in the EU hot seat would mainly be run in Dublin. Now the plan is for a greater regional mix, though Dublin Castle will still feature. The deal underpinning the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Coalition contains a commitment that some of the high-level EU meetings would be brought 'to cities and counties across Ireland'.
Big EU policy debates that the Government will be expected to steer include a drive to increase defence spending and improve the bloc's economic competitiveness.
Discussions about once more enlarging the 27-state club will feature. Ukraine, Montenegro and Albania are hopeful of being in a position to join the EU by the end of this decade.
Irish ministers and diplomats will spend a lot of time in the weeds of negotiations on the size and scope of the EU's next budget, to replace the existing €1.2 trillion one that runs out in 2027. The budget is always the result of an intense arm wrestle between national capitals and the European Commission, the EU's executive body that proposes laws.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has privately told Cabinet members to start making more of an effort to travel to EU meetings that cross their brief, to get to know their counterparts in other governments.
'You will see a stepping-up of that this year,' one Minister said.
Mr Martin is planning to arrange individual sit downs with many other EU leaders over the next year as well.
Some ministers – finance, foreign affairs and agriculture – are already travelling to Brussels several times a year, as the EU has more decision-making power in those areas. Others are less frequent visitors.
Much of the legwork will be done by the State's corps of diplomats and officials based in Brussels, who make up its permanent representation to the EU.
The size of the State's 'perm rep', as it is known in EU-speak, will more than double, up from the 100 officials who usually working there.
The department has rented a second office down the road from the commission's Berlaymont headquarters to accommodate the increase on a three-year lease at a cost of €2.3 million.
What makes a good council presidency?
The Republic's presidency will be watched closely for how the Government approaches debates on defence and security given how its policy of military neutrality puts it out of step with most other member states.
One rough yardstick for success is the number of compromises agreed. However, for all the careful plotting Irish diplomats are doing to gauge what EU legislation might come to the boil later next year, some unforeseen political crisis could grip Europe and dominate the agenda.
Catherine Day, a former secretary general of the commission, said a successful presidency was one that 'helps the system work towards consensus'.
Catherine Day, former secretary general of the European Commission. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
The time in the chair was not an opportunity to 'call the shots', but about listening to what was being said around the table and proposing a way forward, she said.
'The big countries will listen if Ireland has done its homework and brings forward a well-crafted compromise,' the commission's former top civil servant said.
The average person on the street may only take notice when delegations of European leaders start touching down on the tarmac.
For Irish officials and diplomats in Brussels, and many in Dublin, the EU council presidency will have taken over their day-to-day working life long before that.