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A report from MCC Brussels argues that Ireland’s progressive EU presidency agenda, largely in-line with the European Commission’s priorities, glazes over concrete difficulties the country has with active proposals such as CAP payment cuts and new corporate levies that “could threaten the country’s low-tax model”.
It does this, the report claims, to protect its reputational brand as a model EU member state.
The briefing, titled The Model Member State: Ireland’s EU Council Presidency, says that Ireland’s role as the EU’s “model citizen” will be challenged by negotiations concerning the Union’s long-term budgetary plan, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
This is because, its argument goes, the MFF negotiations contain two “highly difficult” elements for Ireland: a potential 30 percent Common Agricultural Policy reduction, and new corporate levies that uniquely threaten the country’s economic model, centred on attracting multinational corporations.
“Ireland’s economy runs on Silicon Valley’s European tax arrangements, while its farms run on methane-intensive beef and dairy. Brussels wants to cut both,” the MCC paper reads, warning that “Ireland’s reputation as a model citizen may prove difficult to sustain in the face of a budget that cuts directly against its own economic interests”.
On social policy and “values” – one of the pillars of the Irish presidency – the Brussels-based think-tank says, “there is no such tension”.
It highlights such inclusions in Ireland’s presidency programme as its support for the ‘AgoraEU’ programme, the €8.5 billion-EU funding programme for culture, media and “civil society”. Through its various strands, it supports such measures as supporting access to “trustworthy information”, “tackling disinformation” and combating threats to “democracy”.
The Irish EU presidency is based on the three pillars of “competitiveness”, “values” and “security”, which Taoiseach Micheál Martin said would “enhance the competitiveness of Europe’s economy, safeguard the fundamental values of our Union at home and abroad, and provide for the security of our citizens”.
The conservative think-tank’s report estimates that under these pillars, the Irish presidency will assume strict EU accession criteria for candidate states such as Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine, involving the acceptance of European standards on matters related to sexuality and gender, despite domestic opposition in some cases.
It also highlights the Irish government’s support for age-verification measures for social media access, which it argues could “effectively end anonymity online”.
In light of these policy priorities, it accuses Ireland of being “a champion of ‘gold-plating’”, which it describes as the practice of “taking an EU directive (which sets a minimum standard member states must meet) and beefing it up with more requirements, expanded scope, or tighter thresholds than Brussels asked for”.
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