At last Friday's European Council, EU leaders elected António Costa as President of the European Council, proposed Ursula von der Leyen as candidate for President of the European Commission and chose Kaja Kallas as candidate for High Representative. The proposed candidate for President of the Commission will now need to be elected by the European Parliament by a majority of its members. The formal appointment of the High Representative requires the agreement of the president-elect of the European Commission. The Commission president, the High Representative and the other Commissioners will, as a body, be subject to a vote of consent by the European Parliament before their formal appointment by the European Council.

EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen visited Ireland earlier this week when she met with Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Micheál Martin, and Minister of State for International Development and the Diaspora, Seán Fleming. The Commissioner also met with representatives of Irish business as well as civil society organisations involved in development issues. She closed her visit with an address to the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) on the Global Gateway investment strategy: "More than halfway to 2030, the world is on track to deliver a meagre 15% of the sustainable development goals. We need to adopt a new approach. This is the idea behind Global Gateway. Ireland is already partnering with the EU on 26 Team Europe initiatives. Together, we're having an impact in countries across the globe. I look forward to deepening our partnership with Ireland when it takes up the Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2026".

Nine months after the initiation of an ex officio anti-subsidy investigation, the European Commission today (Thursday) imposed provisional countervailing duties on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China. Based on the investigation, the Commission has concluded that the BEV value chain in China benefits from unfair subsidisation, which is causing a threat of economic injury to EU BEV producers. The individual duties applying to the three sampled Chinese producers are: BYD: 17.4%; Geely: 19.9%; and SAIC: 37.6%. Other BEV producers in China, which cooperated in the investigation but were not sampled, are subject to the 20.8% weighted average duty. The duty for other non-cooperating companies is 37.6%.

On 1 July Hungary took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union which it will hold until 31 December 2024 when Poland will take over. The Presidency's programme is structured around seven priorities: acceptance of a New European Competitiveness Deal; the reinforcement of the European defence policy; a consistent and merit-based enlargement policy; stemming illegal migration; shaping the future of the cohesion policy; a farmer-oriented EU agricultural policy; and addressing demographic challenges.

Canada has joined the growing group of non-EU countries who have associated to the EU's research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe, and will work jointly on large-scale projects tackling our biggest challenges. Canada associates to the Pillar II of Horizon Europe, which funds collaborative research projects across a wide range of domains. Canadian entities can now join and lead research consortia with some of the world's best research organisations to tackle global challenges together. They will get the opportunity to be funded directly from the programme, while Canada will contribute to its budget.

The Representation hosted a stakeholder event this week on the EU Migration and Asylum Pact. Opening the event, Head of Representation Barbara Nolan said: "Migration is a global reality. Asylum seekers should be treated uniformly across Europe, and the EU is working towards this". The event was also addressed by Michael Shotter, Director at the Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs, and by Andrew Munro, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Justice, who outlined Ireland’s ambitious programme to implement the Pact by June 2026. Click on the link below for more on the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum.

To ensure the EU stays on track to meet its digital transformation ambitions, EU countries need additional investments in digital skills, high-quality connectivity, and uptake of Artificial Intelligence. These are the main conclusions of the second report on the State of the Digital Decade published by the European Commission this week. In its country report for Ireland, the Commission recommends that more be done to increase the number of ICT specialists and to achieve the EU target on e-Health by developing digital solutions such as patient apps and shared care records.

Starting from this week, beverage containers (of up to 3 litres capacity) sold in the EU must have their caps and lids attached if made of plastic. This requirement comes under the EU directive on reducing the impact of certain plastic products on the environment. Plastic caps and lids are found 2-3 times more often than bottles and animals can confuse them with food. Attaching caps to bottles reduces plastic pollution and prevents them from being eaten by animals.

The European Commission this week informed Meta of its preliminary findings that its “pay or consent” advertising model fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In the Commission's preliminary view, this binary choice forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalised but equivalent version of Meta's social networks. Commissioner Thierry Breton said: "Our preliminary view is that Meta’s “Pay or Consent” business model is in breach of the DMA. The DMA is there to give back to the users the power to decide how their data is used and ensure innovative companies can compete on equal footing with tech giants on data access".

The 2023/2024 annual report on European SMEs, out this week, evaluates their economic performance in 2022 and 2023, and forecasts their outlook for 2024 focusing mainly on three key variables: value added expressed in both current and constant prices, employment and number of firms. The report shows that there were 62 SMEs per 1,000 inhabitants in Ireland in 2023, above the EU average of 57. It also shows that Irish SMEs had the highest value added per person employed in 2023 at €119,500, over double the EU average of €54,500.

At last Friday's EU-Egypt Investment Conference in Cairo, President von der Leyen announced the conclusion of over 20 deals between European companies and Egyptian partners, worth over €40 billion, in sectors ranging from hydrogen to water management, from construction to chemicals, from shipping to aviation and automotive. Furthermore, the EU and Egypt signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a Macro-Financial Assistance operation of €1 billion. The memorandum lays out the reforms that Egypt will take forward in order to receive the funds.

The EU-Kenya Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) entered into force this week, representing a key milestone in the EU-Kenya Strategic Partnership. The agreement will boost bilateral trade in goods, increase investment flows, strengthen the ties between reliable partners, and facilitate mutually advantageous economic relations in a sustainable manner, stimulating job creation and economic growth. It will also unlock new economic opportunities, as the EU is Kenya's first export destination and second largest trading partner.

The European Commission has authorised the first-ever vaccine against the Chikungunya virus - a disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. While the virus is not endemic in the EU, the effects of climate change have led to an increased presence of mosquitoes that transmit serious diseases in Europe. A recent report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) confirmed the presence of the Aedes albopictus mosquito in 13 EU/EEA countries and the Aedes aegypti mosquito recently established in Cyprus, which can contribute to the spread of Chikungunya, Zika, dengue and yellow fever.

On Friday 5 July at 1pm, Professor Tobias Lock will give a detailed examination of the constitutional and legal processes behind German reunification to highlight the substantial legal challenges that Irish unification would entail. Similar to German reunification, achieving Irish unity would necessitate negotiations at multiple levels: domestic, bilateral, and international, including with the EU. This process would involve integrating two distinct legal systems, addressing issues ranging from the routine to the contentious. Tobias Lock is a Professor of Law at Maynooth University and the founding director of the Maynooth Centre for European Law.

In this IIEA webinar, Dr Tim Oliver, Director of Studies, and Senior Lecturer for the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance, Loughborough University and Dr Lisa Claire Whitten, Research Fellow at Queen's University Belfast, will discuss the implications and outcomes of the UK general election taking place on Thursday, 4 July.

Since the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, reports of crimes against Armenian cultural heritage in the territory have emerged. In this panel, two experts will discuss abuses of cultural heritage in general and, specifically, the alleged or potential destruction of Armenian cultural heritage following the assertion of Azerbaijani control over Nagorno-Karabakh. They are Derek Fincham, Professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, and Lori Khatchadourian, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology at Cornell University.

Ireland's National Recovery and Resilience Plan Annual Event will mark the submission and approval of Ireland’s first payment request under NextGenerationEU worth €324m, as well as the approval of the REPowerEU addition to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The event will also provide stakeholders with an opportunity to network and engage with projects and programmes across EU funding streams. The event will include keynote addresses from Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, Paschal Donohoe; Minister for Finance, Jack Chambers; and Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economy.

In an address to the IIEA Radu Magdin, CEO, EU Affairs and Global Operations at Smartlink Communications, will discuss what he sees as the ‘Romania-Moldova-Ukraine Triangle’ in geopolitics. As Russia’s full-scale invasion continues to cause significant destruction to infrastructure in Ukraine, global and regional supply chains have endured disruption. While the world considers how best to assist Ukraine in its reconstruction, Dr Magdin will reflect upon the opportunities and challenges that supply chains may face in helping Ukraine rebuild. This in-person event takes place at 1pm on Thursday 11 July.

At a time when migration is one of the most pressing issues on the international agenda – and one of the most polarising – Amy Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), will reflect on why it is important to change the global narrative – from one that is highly politicised to one that captures the potential and rich benefits of this global phenomenon. This IIEA online event takes place at 12 noon on Friday 12 July.

The Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) this week announced the opening of calls to support semiconductor research and innovation initiatives in photonics, competence centres, and a cloud-based semiconductor design platform as part of the Chips for Europe initiative under the Chips Act. The total EU funding available for these calls is €325 million, which should be topped up by additional financing from participating states of the Chips JU. This new round of calls will further support Europe's semiconductor industry by establishing a pilot line for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Detailed information about the calls and application process will be given via information sessions on 11-12 July 2024.