‘We have an opportunity to steer the agenda on every issue, from security to economic matters’

Getting the EU budget across the line will be one of the major tasks of Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union and it presents an opportunity to ensure Irish interests are to the fore when it comes to EU funding.

Ensuring Europe remains competitive economically, strengthens its security and continues to lead to way in human rights will be three of the core elements of the presidency, according to Foreign Affairs Minister and Meath East TD, Helen McEntee.

Minister McEntee will be one of the senior ministers taking a leading role in the presidency, which will see Ireland taking over the chairing of council meetings, leading the EU's legislative agenda, acting as a neutral broker among member states and representing the Council in negotiations with other EU institutions.

"We will have an opportunity within Europe to steer the agenda on every issue that we are discussing, from security matters to economic matters. The next budget is where it is really important from an Irish perspective," she said.

"We want to ensure the real traditional funding areas are kept as high as possible, including the Common Agricultural Policy and fisheries, as well as Cohesion Funding which is very important for all of our communities - as it allows countries to access funds to build up their infrastructure.

"We will also be looking to ensure the Peace Plus funding, which is specific to Ireland is kept as high as possible - it helps communities north and south of the border. Leader funding is also something we want to ensure remains high."

Minister McEntee said we also need to look at security. "How do we get the balance, so we have money countries can access to enhance own security particularly? This is important at a time when there is a war happening on the European continent.

"Supporting Ukraine will be to the fore. We will be trying to play as strong a role as possible in whatever a future peace process would look like."

From Minister McEntee's perspective our own security is important, particularly maritime security.

"We now have a strategy on maritime security. We need to make sure we have a full picture of what is happening in our waters, what is happening under our waters, what is happening in our specific Irish zones to ensure we can respond to issues that arise.

"Anything we do online, our phones or computers has to be carried through cables that are underwater so we need to protect them. There are gas pipelines and electricity pipelines running through our waters. There are new and emerging threats too like drones that can impact our airspace.

"We will advocate for a security strategy but our position of military neutrality has to be taken into consideration.

"We also need to focus on making ourselves self reliant when it comes to energy and to support countries to invest in renewable energy, to be more interconnected within Europe and be less reliant on fossil fuels, less dependent on the Middle East and Russia."

Minister McEntee will be chairing the Trade Council. "We need to strengthen our relationship with the US. We have had a challenging few years but I want to make sure the agreement we reached last year continues, that as many sectors as possible are protected and that we reduce tariffs further. I also want to make sure trade is strong between Ireland and UK and the EU and UK.

"We are an exporting country, so we will look at other trade routes that can be opened up like Thailand, Malaysia and the Middle East, where we don't have agreements. It will be my jobs to chair these discussions."

The Minister said she would be pushing for stronger actions taken against Israel including a ban on trade in the illegally occupied territories.

She said one of the key areas of focus of the presidency will be to ensure Europe remains competitive from an economic perspective.

"If you have a business in Meath and you want to export to other parts of the EU, you want to set up in other parts of the EU, or you want to access money to grow your business, how do we help you to do that, to make it simpler. This is not about deregulation or lowering standards, but preventing duplication - how make it all one process across Europe.

"If a farmer want to access funding through CAP, we want to make it that bit simpler - how do we strip it back a bit without lowering standards.

"We are very good at innovation in Ireland, particularly regarding medical devices and pharmaceuticals but our regulatory system is tougher than in other parts of the world. We want to make it simpler.

"We will be hosting an AI summit to look at how we use this technology in a responsible way.

"One thing were we want to focus on is child safety online, looking at options from banning certain age groups, better age verification and working with companies regarding algorithms."

Minister McEntee said that as a way of engaging people in the presidency, every county in Ireland is paired with an EU country and Meath will be paired with Italy. "We already have twinnings with two Italian town, Bobbio and Broccastella.

"We are developing a really exciting food connection with the development of our new Centre of Food Culture in Kells. I have to commend the local authority as they have a really ambitious agenda for the six months, be it around food, schools, festivals.

"Twenty-five per cent of the different meeting of the presidency is happening outside Dublin. A number will be in Meath and this is an opportunity to showcase Meath, our culture and food at different venues around the county.

"Some of my meetings will be outside of Meath, but I will make sure to bring a Meath angle to them, like food and entertainment.

"We will be giving gifts to the visitors and I will be making sure the gifts from County Meath showcase our culture and creativity."

Another major focus of the presidency will be values. "We will be looking at workers rights and labour markets. We want a strong workforce with people's rights protected.

"The EU has transformed living standards, improved rights for women and minorities. A lot of changes that lifted people up came from membership.

"We want to make sure we continue to try and lift standards.

"There are so many conflicts happening around the world, so many underdeveloped countries. We need to continue to support them at a time when other countries are pulling back on aid and support."

"When we last had the presidency we had a large number countries joining. There are other countries now looking to join and we wish to make as much progress with those countries as we can."

Minister McEntee said there are high expectations Ireland will deliver on the aims of the presidency. "We have a strong reputation of getting difficult issues and problems across the line.

“As people we are good at bringing to people together and finding compromises," she said.