EU and International

The EU and International Unit (EUIU) at DCEDIY manages and co-ordinates the Department’s international responsibilities, including representation and input to the European Union, the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the OECD, as well as cross border and Shared Island matters. The Unit has staff both in Dublin and Brussels.

At European Union level, DCEDIY attachés communicate, promote and defend Ireland's interests at Working Parties within the Council of the EU, supported by the EUIU team in Dublin and by policy colleagues across the Department.

The Council of the EU consists of Government Ministers from all Member States. It negotiates and adopts EU laws, together with the European Parliament, based on proposals from the European Commission. The Council meets in 10 different ‘configurations’, with each configuration representing a series of policy areas linked to Government Ministries/Departments across the EU. Each configuration has its own Council, where relevant Ministers across the EU meet to agree policy positions for the Council of the EU.

The agendas for each Council meeting are based on work done in advance by departmental officials working as Attachés within Ireland’s Permanent Representation in Brussels. Attachés carry out detailed technical examinations of proposals within Working Parties under each Council, ensuring Ireland’s interests and policies are promoted and defended. Proposals discussed and negotiated can take the form of proposed EU Directives, Regulations or Council Conclusions.

The input of DCEDIY attachés is informed and supported by EUIU in Dublin and policy colleagues across the Department. The work of the Department spans three different Councils. Working Parties under these Councils are the key fora at which DCEDIY influences EU-wide legislation and policy within areas under our remit and ensure that they are acceptable or practicable in the Irish context.

The focus of three Councils which the Department works most closely is outlined below:

• The Employment, Social Policy, Health Care and Consumer Affairs Council(EPSCO) works to increase employment levels and improve living and working conditions, health and consumer protection. It brings together the Ministers responsible for employment, social affairs, health and consumer policy from all EU Member States. Relevant European Commissioners also participate in meetings. There are usually four EPSCO meetings a year. Each EPSCO Council meets over two days, the first day dedicated to employment and social policy and the second to health. The first Equality dedicated ESPCO meeting took place under the recent Belgian Presidency (2024). The Belgian Presidency also proposed that the name of the Council would include Equality, so that this focus is more explicitly acknowledged.

While a number of Working Parties contribute to the EPSCO agenda, the Working Party that requires substantial DCEDIY input is the Social Questions Working Party (SQWP). Input may also be required for other EPSCO working parties, depending on the focus of discussions.

• The Justice and Home Affairs Council(JHA) Council develops cooperation and common policies on various cross-border issues, with the aim of building an EU-wide area of freedom, security and justice. The Council is made up of justice and home affairs ministers from all EU Member States.

In general, files at the JHA are led by colleagues at D/Justice, with DCEDIY providing input and support on particular Working Parties, primarily the Working Party on Fundamental Rights, Citizens Rights and Free Movement of Persons (FREMP) as well as the Asylum Working Party and the Civil Law Working Party (Vulnerable Adults). The JHA ordinarily meets every three months.

• The Education, Youth, Culture and Sport(EYCS) Council focuses on education, culture, youth, media, communication and sport. The exact composition of the Council depends on the items discussed in a particular meeting. The Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth also attends. EYCS meets three or four times a year, twice in its full configuration. The Youth Working Party (YWP) is led by DCEDIY on behalf of Ireland.

Following Working Party negotiations, files are then discussed by Ambassadors to the EU at their weekly meetings of Coreper, the Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States. Coreper is the Council's main preparatory body. All items to be included on Council agendas must be examined first by Coreper unless the Council decides otherwise. Coreper is not an EU decision-making body, only the Council has the power to make decisions. There are two Coreper structures, COREPER I and COREPER II.

• COREPER I is most relevant to DCEDIY and deals largely with social and economic issues. This prepares the work of 6 council configurations, including EYCS and EPSCO with which DCEDIY has most involvement.

• COREPER II deals largely with political, financial and foreign policy issues. This prepares the work of 4 council configurations including JHA, which DCEDIY has most involvement with.

Formal Council meetings are organised by the Council of the EU and chaired by the Council Presidency in Brussels or Luxembourg. However, each Council presidency also organises informal meetings of Ministers to discuss initiatives related to a particular topic or Council configuration. These informal meetings take place in the Member State holding the presidency.

The Presidency of the Council of the EU rotates among the Member States every six months. The country that holds the Presidency identifies its key policy priorities in advance, then plans, chairs meetings and represents all 27 Member States in negotiations with other EU institutions and is expected to act as an honest broker.

Presidencies work in ‘Trios’, to develop a common political programme. The trio sets long-term goals and prepares a common agenda that will be addressed by the Council over an 18-month period. The Hungarian Presidency (July – December 2024) was the last of the trio made up of the presidencies of Spain (July – December 2023) Belgium (January 2024 -December 2024). The current trio is made up of Poland (January–June 2025), Denmark (July–December 2025), and Cyprus (January–June 2026).

Ireland is scheduled to hold the Presidency from 1 July to 31 December 2026, and will start a new Trio including Lithuania and Greece. Preparations for the Presidency are well under way across Government and are led by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

This is the judicial arm of the EU which ensures that EU law is applied in the same way in every member state. It is based in Luxembourg and comprises a General Court (54 judges) and a Court of Justice (27 judges). Decisions of the General Court can be appealed to the Court of Justice. The Chief State Solicitors Office (CSSO) liaises with DCEDIY on relevant cases, and EUIU in turn seek input from policy units on particular CJEU cases when required.

This brings together freedoms and rights for EU citizens into one legally binding document. It promotes human rights in the EU. The charter is superior to Irish domestic law, but only applies when Irish bodies are implementing EU law.

The six chapters covered by the charter are: Dignity, Freedoms, Equality, Solidarity, Citizens rights and Justice. Each chapter comprises a number of Articles. Article 24 refers to the rights of the child. Article 26 refers to the integration of persons with disabilities, Article 23 to equality between men and women, Article 21 to non-discrimination, and Article 18 refers to the right to asylum. When the Irish Government is implementing EU law, it must do so in line with the Charter.

The European Union and International Unit at DCEDIY holds the role of Ireland’s National Focal Point for the Charter.

This EU agency was established in 2007 to provide assistance and expertise relating to fundamental rights to EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and to EU countries when they implement EU law.

The main task of the agency is to collect and publish relevant, objective, reliable and comparable information and data on the situation of fundamental rights in all EU countries within the scope of EU law. The agency also promotes dialogue with civil society in order to raise public awareness of fundamental rights and disseminate its work. The agency is based in Vienna.

The European Union and International Unit at DCEDIY holds the role of Ireland’s National Liaison Officer for FRA.

Ireland has been a member of the United Nations since December 14th 1955 and has signed and ratified a number of important human rights conventions over that time. The conventions that are relevant to DCEDIY are outlined below.

The establishment of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was a key innovation of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) and is essentially an international peer review mechanism for the human rights records of all UN Member States. The review of each country takes place every four and a half to five years, at sessions of the UPR Working Group.

The review process involves the preparation of a National Report by the State under review; submission of reports by civil society organisations; an interactive dialogue during which other States are given an opportunity to ask questions and make recommendations on human rights issues; and the adoption by the HRC of the report of the Working Group which includes the State’s position on the recommendations made.

Ireland has committed to engaging actively with the UPR process. In addition to submitting State reports, Ireland makes constructive recommendations to all Member States on a range of human rights issues, often highlighting particular concerns related to for example, the death penalty, restrictions on civil society space, and discrimination against women and LGBTIQ+ persons. Ireland also strongly supports civil society engagement in the UPR process.

UPR reporting for Ireland is the responsibility of DCEDIY and this work is led and co-ordinated by the EU and International Unit. In November 2021, Ireland completed its third cycle of the UPR. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, led a cross-governmental delegation in presenting Ireland’s National Report and responding to UN Member States’ questions and views on our domestic human rights record. See https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g21/224/22/pdf/g2122422.pdf

The outcome of this review was published in 2002 and a series of recommendations was issued to Ireland. The next State UPR submission is due in July 2026, with a hearing scheduled later that year.

In 2024, Ireland took the opportunity to submit a mid-term review report as part of the UPR process. This work was led and co-ordinated by the EU and International Unit in DCEDIY. Mid-term reporting is voluntary but regarded as an important step in the process.

Ireland’s mid-term report addresses the recommendations from the most recent review and provides a narrative overview of Irelands work to promote and protect human rights. The mid-term report is available at https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/upr-implementation

Ireland has signed and ratified a number of UN Conventions or Treaties as part of its commitment to protecting and promoting human rights.

For each UN Covenant or Convention, States Parties are obliged to submit periodic reports to specialised committees of the UN, known as the human rights treaty monitoring bodies, on the progress made in implementing the treaty domestically.

These national reports are then published by the relevant treaty monitoring body and national human rights institutions and civil society organisations are invited to submit their observations or ‘shadow reports’. The treaty monitoring body then presents a list of issues seeking further information from the State. There is then a hearing, usually in Geneva, where the State delegation then appears at a hearing before the treaty monitoring body which asks the States further questions on the State report and responses, before it publishes its Concluding Observations. Such hearings normally take place in Geneva.

The Conventions relevant to the remit of DCEDIY and which the Department is responsible for co-ordinating State reporting and leading the State delegation include:

What is the UNCRC?

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

This Convention came into force in 1969 and Ireland ratified the Convention in 2000. DCEDIY is the lead Department for the States report to the Treaty monitoring body, the CERD Committee.

For more information about the most recent State report on CERD please see here.

The most recent State report on CERD was submitted by Ireland in 2018 and the State appeared before the Committee in late 2019. The state report is available here: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CERD%2fC%2fIRL%2f5-9&Lang=en

The committee’s concluding observations are available here: https://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2FPPRiCAqhKb7yhsl%2FyrM1B9TT0oGmEKg0FjIFBaQQaO8bEZ9%2FjUMsKngxCaMmgpgGYMQhQE5n36ANxPo5h0sdiUX3IS8T9azvv%2BZn1wghgd49Kq4GMdJeecR7C

The Department is now co-ordinating the preparation of the State’s combined tenth to twelfth periodic reports which is due for submission in early 2025. This preparation includes consultation with civil society.

Gender Equality: EU and International Policy

UNCRPD Awareness Campaigns

The Council of Europe (not be confused with the European Council described above) is an international organisation created in 1949 comprised of 46 countries (including Ireland). It was established to promote democracy and human rights and is based in Strasbourg, France. The Council of Europe has a Parliamentary Assembly composed of 306 parliamentarians who are not directly elected but are appointed by the national parliaments of the member countries.

The Council of Europe Court of Human Rights (ECHR) oversees the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights which was signed in 1950 and aims to secure civil and political rights. The convention became part of Irish law in 2003 (the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003). All the rights included in the Convention are included in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, though the EU Charter also includes rights arising from more modern issues (e.g., data protection) that are additional to those covered by the Convention.

The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (Framework Convention) is a multilateral treaty of the Council of Europe, devoted to the protection of persons belonging to national minorities. The Framework was adopted on 10 November 1994 by the Committee of Ministers, and it entered into force on 1 February 1998. It is now in force in 38 states.

As part of its work with International Bodies to progress Traveller and Roma inclusion, Ireland periodically reports under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM), ratified in May 1999. Under the FCNM, Ireland submits periodic reports describing the measures implemented over the previous five years, with reference to the Council of Europe’s recommendations, and covering matters pertaining to the Traveller and Roma communities.

Ireland submitted its Fifth State Report to the Council of Europe on 12 July 2023. This report was prepared by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, in consultation with all other relevant Departments. In addition, Traveller and Roma representative organisations, and interested parties, were invited to submit their observations in writing, in response to the draft report. The comments and feedback received were taken into account when compiling the final draft, and the full content of the submissions is included as an Appendix to the State Report, which is available here and below.

https://www.coe.int/en/web/minorities/at-a-glance

The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a unique human rights expert body that monitors action against racism, discrimination (on grounds of “race”, ethnic or national background, skin colour, citizenship, religion, language, sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics), and intolerance in Europe. ECRI deals with racism, discrimination and intolerance that are or may be of a structural or general nature. However, it is not entitled to receive individual complaints, which are handled by the European Court of Human Rights.

ECRI was set up by the first Summit of Heads of State and Government of the member states of the Council of Europe in 1993 and became operational in 1994. For more information see https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-commission-against-racism-and-intolerance.

As part of its work with international bodies to address racism and intolerance, Ireland reports periodically to the (ECRI). This report is prepared by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, in consultation with all other relevant Departments.