{"id":382917,"date":"2026-04-05T09:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T09:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382917\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T09:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T09:03:08","slug":"ministers-warned-of-delays-in-writing-eu-rules-into-law-as-presidency-approaches-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/382917\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministers warned of delays in writing EU rules into law as presidency approaches \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ministers have been told to watch out for delays writing new EU<\/a> rules and regulations into national law, to avoid getting an embarrassing rap on the knuckles from Brussels when Ireland holds the EU presidency<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Government is keen to avoid any \u201cpolitical damage\u201d that could follow the European Commission pursuing new legal cases or fining Ireland for missing deadlines to pass legislation, or incorrectly transposing EU-level reforms into Irish law. <\/p>\n

Internal correspondence shows there has been a concerted push to reduce the number of infringement proceedings the EU\u2019s executive arm has open against the Government, before Ireland takes on the rotating Council of the EU presidency in July. <\/p>\n

The commission, the Brussels-based administration that proposes and enforces EU laws, routinely announces infringement proceedings against national governments, which can ultimately end up at the European Court of Justice<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The commission is pursuing 48 separate infringement cases against Ireland at present. Cases it is pursing include laws related to water quality, natural habitats, the European arrest warrant system and regulations covering money laundering. <\/p>\n

Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne<\/a> wrote to all Ministers late last year, saying there was a need to close some outstanding cases and improve Ireland\u2019s statistics. <\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> asked Byrne to get an \u201cearly warning\u201d system off the ground across Government, to track laws Brussels officials might be planning to take Ireland to task on. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe risks associated with infringements extend beyond legal concerns … We must avoid exposing ourselves to political damage without first co-ordinating an internal response,\u201d Byrne wrote in a September 18th, 2025 letter to all Ministers. <\/p>\n

Department officials have been asked to flag any informal queries they receive from the commission about legislation to the Department of Foreign Affairs<\/a>. \u201cThis may concern the possible opening of a new infringement case or the potential escalation … or referral to the European Court of Justice of an existing case,\u201d Byrne wrote. <\/p>\n

Keeping the State\u2019s diplomats in the loop at an early stage would allow the Government to prepare a \u201cco-ordinated response\u201d, he said. The correspondence was released to The Irish Times following a Freedom of Information Act request. <\/p>\n

In his letter to Government colleagues, Byrne said departments had cut the number of open cases to a \u201crecord low\u201d of 39 last May, a \u201cconsiderable improvement\u201d on four years ago, when the EU executive was fighting Ireland on 60 cases. \u201cWe cannot be complacent,\u201d the junior minister wrote.<\/p>\n

For the second half of this year the Government will hold the rotating Council of the EU presidency, an influential deal-making role that involves chairing negotiations<\/a> to agree common positions between the 27 member states. <\/p>\n

Usually there is a housekeeping rush by the country set to take over the EU presidency, to wrap up low-hanging infringement disputes. <\/p>\n

In a separate October 22nd letter to Ministers, Byrne said officials had singled out 10 cases where the Government had made changes and were waiting for the commission to sign the file as closed. <\/p>\n

Ireland has one of the better records in the EU. It has the sixth lowest number of active infringement proceedings. Spain has the most open cases, facing 102 infringement challenges over various laws and missed deadlines. <\/p>\n

It is understood there is a desire at the top of the commission to come down firmer on governments in certain instances. For example, where interpretations of EU laws leave excessive national barriers in place and make it harder for businesses to operate seamlessly across the union\u2019s single market. <\/p>\n

The Berlaymont is mulling a new approach to hand out fines sooner for infringements and delays, to make sure capitals stay on the same page when writing agreed EU reforms into law. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers have been told to watch out for delays writing new EU rules and regulations into national law,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1844,5148,61,60,1843,43,73683],"class_list":["post-382917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-european-union","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-thomas-byrne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}