Ireland\u2019s presidency of the EU will focus on supporting Ukraine, maintaining growth and protecting children online, senior government figures have said.<\/p>\n
The Government published on Wednesday its policy programme for the presidency of the Council of the EU.<\/p>\n
Hosting the six-month term presidency, which will involve summits of senior EU figures in Ireland, is expected to cost between \u20ac165 and \u20ac185 million, excluding security costs.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the launch at Dublin Castle on Wednesday, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said they needed to \u201cwork harder\u201d to protect EU citizens during a period of \u201cincreased threat and conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n
Martin said that the D\u00e1il agenda would not change as a result of the Irish presidency, but said it would involve \u201ca significant extra workload\u201d for ministers of state and public servants.<\/p>\n
T\u00e1naiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris said negotiating the annual EU budget would be a priority and said the \u201cinterlocking themes\u201d of competitiveness, values and security reinforced each other.<\/p>\n
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said it would be a presidency \u201cfor the whole country\u201d and said all counties would be given a chance to engage with the EU presidency.<\/p>\n
Martin and other ministers used the Irish phrase \u201cn\u00ed neart go cur le ch\u00e9ile\u201d, translating roughly as \u201cthere is no strength without unity\u201d, as they launched the programme.<\/p>\n
Minister of State Thomas Byrne said it was the first time Ireland would hold the presidency of the EU since Irish became an official working language of the EU in January 2022.<\/p>\n
Martin said they would need a \u201crelentless focus\u201d on the agenda amid conflict and challenges around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWar and conflict is undermining democracy, undermining the economy, undermining society, undermining dignity,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re conscious that\u2019s the backdrop that we\u2019re entering into the presidency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s within our capacity (to make progress) once we keep our eye on the ball to keep relentless focus on getting the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of enlargement, we believe we can do a really good job of getting Montenegro very close to the line by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EU Council, representing the EU\u2019s heads of government and ministers, is in charge of legislation and involves gatherings of EU ministers with similar briefs.<\/p>\n
For six months, Ireland will take responsibility for planning and chairing EU Council meetings and negotiations, and representing the council in discussions with the European Parliament and European Commission.<\/p>\n
About 30,000 delegates will visit Ireland over the six-month period, with meetings taking place over four-and-a-half months when the breaks over August and the Christmas period are excluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s presidency of the EU will focus on supporting Ukraine, maintaining growth and protecting children online, senior government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-492820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492820","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=492820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}