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Irish Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Irish officials step up backroom plans for influential deal-making role for EU presidency
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. READ MORE 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. [ Republic eyes chance to host grand summit on future of Europe Opens in new window ] 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.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tariffs Weaken American National Power
NATIONAL POWER IS A DIFFICULT THING to define. But in teaching and studying strategy at all our military's war colleges, our senior military and government civilians use the acronym 'DIME' to describe the diplomatic, information, military, and economic elements of national power. Students learn that these four elements are interdependent and are mutually reinforcing strands in a web that defines how nations exhibit power, exert influence, and secure their interests. Taken together, these elements of power can generate something greater than the sum of the parts: trust. When the United States has well-understood diplomatic goals and positions, takes in and sends out intelligence and properly messages information, maintains a strong and effective military, and wields a thriving economy, our allies and our adversaries know to take our words and actions seriously. They trust us. In military operations, in international partnerships, in messaging our values and ideas, and in high-stakes diplomacy, trust is always the real coin of the realm. It's expensive and difficult to gain trust—but not nearly as costly as operating without it. Alone, each one of these elements is important; together, they help us exhibit strength and leadership as a nation. And each specific element of national power depends on the others. Too often, Americans think of power in isolation. We debate military readiness without considering diplomatic blowback. We think of informational messaging campaigns without considering their diplomatic implications. We sometimes impose economic sanctions without regard for allied cooperation. We make drastic cuts to the military to save money, which costs us in the long run; or we spend huge amounts on the military without serious ideas of how to pay for it. When one strand frays—whether by unintended action, neglect, short-sighted policy, or outright sabotage—it weakens the others. It erodes trust. To support The Bulwark and join our pro-democracy community, become a Bulwark+ member. Sign up today, and we'll give you 30 days to try it out for free. See what you think: Today, we're seeing the effects of a radical tariff policy hastily applied and widely seen as uncoordinated and unfair. Our financial markets responded with predictable volatility, then the ripple moved outward. Trading partners retaliated. Countries lost trust in our economic policies and the future power of the dollar. Investors, both foreign and domestic, grew wary and then angry. The world began to lose trust and confidence in the United States as a stable, predictable economic leader. One strand began to fray, and it has the potential to increasingly affect the other three. I've seen and experienced this firsthand as a soldier. As the commander of U.S. Army Europe during the European debt crisis, I watched trust deteriorate with several of our European partners at different times. Italy's financial crisis was exacerbated when Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced a criminal trial for a series of scandals. While my Italian military counterpart was a good friend and trusted ally, it became increasingly difficult to coordinate with him because of what was going on in his government. Plans were delayed. Communication suffered. The rot in the economic and political arenas tainted the military. Trust was damaged. The situation was worse in Serbia. To start with, Serbia wasn't an ally. Despite promises of reform, their government was still harboring war criminals from the Balkans conflict, and I could never fully trust my Serbian military counterparts. Their unwillingness to confront their past—and their manipulation of information about it—corroded any possibility of a reliable military partnership. And of course, there was Russia. Long before the invasion of Crimea, intelligence painted a clear picture: Vladimir Putin was pursuing a policy of imperial resurgence and territorial expansion. His use of disinformation, cyber operations, energy coercion, and even assassinations of his political rivals were clear signals that he knew how to combine DIME into a coherent whole to achieve nefarious objectives. Which brings us to our current situation. The execution of the Trump administration's new tariffs appears sloppy and self-defeating. The administration promised 'shock and awe,' and predictably, those bold, dramatic actions meant to stun an adversary into submission have revealed an absence of strategic foresight and a lack of coordinated planning and risk mitigation. In military operations, failing to account for the enemy's likely response is a cardinal sin. Yet we are witnessing that same shortfall in the economic domain. The countries affected by the tariffs—many of them longtime trading partners and allies—are not absorbing these decisions quietly, as the administration had hoped they would. They are responding in kind, adjusting trade routes, seeking alternative partnerships, and questioning the dependability of the United States as a global economic anchor. Implementing sweeping tariffs without understanding short- and long-term second- and third-order effects is not a demonstration of strength. It's a gamble, and it appears we don't have the cards. Share The Bulwark When our economic actions lack transparency or coherence, when they seem impulsive rather than strategic, we alienate allies and embolden adversaries. Our diplomats are left scrambling to explain policies they had no part in crafting (and for which they have no rational explanation). Our public information channels, lacking accurate candor and now broken, become mere spin, and our military partners begin to question the consistency of our government and our global commitments. To satisfy a political impulse, we have weakened not just our economy, but our overall national power. What's worse, this economic self-immolation comes after a systematic dismantling of some of the other most effective tools of national power. Career diplomats have been dismissed or marginalized. Institutions like USAID and the Voice of America—once beacons of American values—have been gutted. Our intelligence community, most recently the National Security Agency and Cyber Command, have faced waves of internal disruption and increasing public and international distrust. Trump promised to strengthen the military, but it's important to realize the military never operates in a vacuum and certainly can't carry the other three elements of power. We depend on diplomats to build coalitions, on intelligence to shape the battlespace, on information to help gain trust by messaging our ideology and policies, and on our economy to support a military that gives us an unfair advantage over any potential enemy. We used to have all of this, and so we had trust internally and externally. It is why we have so many enduring alliances. It is why foreign militaries sought joint training and exercises with us. It is why international development agencies followed our lead, and why our diplomat's words carried weight in global forums. But that trust is not infinite, and as we've seen, it can squandered. National strength is not just measured in GDP, in carrier strike groups, in radio broadcasts or votes at the United Nations. It's in all these things, and more, when they are synchronized and complementary. Trust strengthens each element of DIME. Break that trust, in one or more of the elements in big or small ways, and the nation loses. Share
Local Italy
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Local Italy
Italian PM Meloni slams vandalism at WWII massacre site
The monument in Basovizza, near Trieste, honours thousands of Italians killed by Yugoslav resistance fighters in the Foibe massacres, so called because victims were often thrown into deep sinkholes known as 'foibe'. "To insult Basovizza with repugnant inscriptions that recall dramatic pages of our history is not only to trample on the memory of the martyrs of the Foibe but to offend the entire nation," Meloni said. It was "an act of unprecedented gravity, which cannot go unpunished," she said in a statement. While most of the 'foibe' were sinkholes, the Basovizza Foiba was a mineshaft. The massacres are a source of contention in Italy. They are commemorated by the right, which has attempted to equate the mass murders of Italians by Communist-led anti-fascists to the Holocaust. Serbian phrases scrawled in red on the ground outside the monument overnight between Friday and Saturday read: "Death to fascism, freedom to the peoples," according to Italian media reports. In the decades after the war, Italy's attempts to turn the page on its fascist history and the crimes committed by its own forces in Yugoslavia, meant that the Foibe massacres were largely downplayed. It was only in 2004 that the right-wing government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi established a national day of remembrance on February 10th. Meloni's hard-right government has particularly embraced the event.
