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

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

61% : Ukraine, Montenegro and Albania are hopeful of being in a position to join the EU by the end of this decade.
58% : 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.
57% : Running a successful presidency can boost a member sate's standing and influence inside the EU.
56% : Running an effective presidency "will be essential for Ireland's future position and influence in the EU", an internal December 2024 briefing stated.
56% : 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.
55% : 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.
54% : 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.
53% : 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.
53% : 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.
51% : 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.
35% : 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.

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