Ireland has assumed the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union from 1 July to 31 December 2026, with a programme built around “Strength with unity.”
The six-month presidency will prioritise competitiveness, values and security.
At the opening ceremony in Dublin, European Council President António Costa told attendees that Ireland would steer the Council agenda on behalf of 450 million EU citizens during its term.
Costa said the EU’s work on peace and security would cover Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East, as well as Ukraine.
Ukraine’s future is “in the European Union”, he stated, adding that accession negotiations have formally opened with Ukraine and Moldova and that the EU had opened talks on the first “cluster” — a group of policy areas used to structure membership negotiations.
Security and migration priorities
Under the security strand of the Irish programme, Ireland will focus on EU internal security by advancing measures to improve cross-border cooperation against organised crime, including migrant smuggling and firearms trafficking, Costa declared.
The presidency will also support work to disrupt organised crime financing, strengthen the resilience and security of Europe’s ports and other critical infrastructure, and improve operational action against transnational criminal networks.
On migration, Ireland will focus on implementing the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum — a set of agreed EU rules on asylum and migration — while progressing measures to facilitate migrant returns, including digitalising return systems.
Costa also said housing would be a focus during the Irish presidency, after he put the housing crisis on the European Council agenda last October and the European Commission presented a strategy for affordable housing.
He stated that negotiations on the EU’s next long-term budget — the Multiannual Financial Framework — would be a priority for the Irish presidency, with an overall agreement needed by the end of this year so the budget can start at the beginning of 2028.
