Work of the EU Affairs Section

a) Secretariat to Department’s Committee on European Affairs

This is an internal cross-divisional committee which meets regularly to discuss key EU Policy issues of relevance to the Department. The EU Affairs Section provides the secretariat to the Committee. At the beginning of each year, the Secretariat presents a key Departmental EU Programme document based on the proposed EU Programme for incoming EU Presidencies, for agreement by the Department’s Management Board for the forthcoming year. The Secretariat also provides the Management Board with a mid-year report on the basis of current EU priorities having regard to incoming Presidency priorities.

b) Updated information on EU Directives

The Unit monitors and reports on the transposition of EU Directives falling under the aegis of this Department. Timely transposition of EU Directives is essential for good governance and national transposition. Performance is measured twice yearly by the European Commission’s Internal Market Scoreboard.

Regular reports on the Department’s transposition record as well as infringement cases taken against us are conveyed to the Inter-Departmental Coordinating Committee on EU Affairs (ICCEUA) chaired by the Minister of State for European Affairs, Ms. Lucinda Creighton, T.D. as well as to the Secretary General and Management Board. The Section transmits details of Directives transposed by this Department to the Commission via its NEMs (National Execution Measures) database, following advertisement in the Iris Oifigiúil. Directives are also monitored by the EUReturns database, overseen by the Department of the Taoiseach.

Ten Directives were successfully transposed during 2010.

EU Directives - Latest

C) Europe 2020 Strategy

"Europe 2020: a Suropean strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth" is a successor to the Lisbon Agenda for Jobs and Growth. It is designed to enhance the EU's growth potential and deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion. Progress in achieving the objectives of the Strategy will be monitored by theme and by Member States as part of a new economic policy co-ordination process decided by the European Council. Member States will pursue growth enhancing reforms in the key Europe 2020 thematic policy areas - these national plans will be set out in National Reform Programmes. Ireland's National Reform Programme is due to be submitted to the Commission in April 2011.

d) Oireachtas Scrutiny

The Oireachtas Scrutiny system was introduced in July 2002 and subsequently put on a statutory footing by the EU Scrutiny Act 2002.  The system requires Departments to submit an Information Note to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Scrutiny in respect of any proposal for a Regulation, Directive or Decision and for Green and White Papers.  The Committee may decide to call the relevant officials before it to give a presentation and answer questions on the proposal concerned.

The Committee may refer cases for further, more detailed scrutiny by the relevant sectoral Committees of the Oireachtas, at which officials responsible for the dossier may be requested to appear.

The section prepares six-monthly reports on the relevant EU developments for submission to the Oireachtas and provides material to the Department of Foreign Affairs for inclusion in a separate annual report.

For the latest six-monthly report to Oireachtas, please click on the link below:

• January to June 2011 (PDF, 350 KB)

e) EU Competitiveness Council 

The Competitiveness Council was created at the Seville European Council in June 2002, and is effectively a combination of the previous three formations of the Internal Market Council, the Industry Council, and the Research Council. 

The Competitiveness Council normally meets in a formal session four times a year, the Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation usually acts as head of delegation at these formal meetings.  Ministers also meet in an informal session once during each Presidency.

Whilst this Department takes the lead role in this Council, given the cross cutting issues involved, a number of other Departments also make inputs to the Council. This Department co-ordinates, prepares and develops policy inputs to the EU Competitiveness Council on both horizontal and sectoral issues. The Competitiveness Council prepares a key issues paper for consideration by the Spring European Council attended by Heads of State and Government.

More detailed information can be found of the website of the Competitiveness Council.

f) Other Useful EU Links:

www.eumatters.ie is a Department of Foreign Affairs website which provides factual information about Ireland’s membership of the European Union.

Council of the EU

European Commission

European Parliament

Previous EU Presidency (Hungarian) Website - January to June 2011

Current EU Presidency (Polish) Website July-Dec 2011

a) Financial Perspectives for EU programmes 2007-2013

The EU Budget review published on 19 October 2010 lays down the broad policy framework for the next multi-annual financial framework to be presented before 1 July 2011. The Review essentially proposes that the weight of spending should mirror the EU's core policy priorities, the new policy directions of the Lisbon Treaty and the importance of energy and climate change policies and the external EU dimension (trade etc). In particular, Europe 2020 and its targets will be the springboard for generating integrated policy approaches and integrated delivery instruments. The current objective is to finalise a deal on the perspectives during the Danish Presidency in the first half of 2012.

b) Employment Social Policy Health and Consumer Council (ESPHCA):

One of the nine sectoral formations of the Council of Ministers, the ESPHCA Council was part of the revised set of Council formations agreed by the Seville European Council in June 2002. In addition to this Department’s areas of responsibility, the work of this Council also involves policy areas covered by the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Justice and Law Reform, and the Department of Health and Children. The Industrial Relations Section of this Department co-ordinates the Irish input into the ESPHCA Council at EU level.

ESPHCA Council