Will Ireland’s diplomatic charm fix budget wars and Gaza trade row in next six months?For the next six months, Dublin will try to play neutral on defence and Middle East policy while simultaneously pushing for a contentious EU budget deal that many in Brussels still think could easily collapse.
Ireland takes over the EU presidency as analysts ridicule its defence spending – Europe’s lowest at 0.2 percent of its GDP. But contributions to European security should not be measured by spending on arms alone: and Ireland is the case in point.
A one-word answer to why EU lost control of Big Tech: Ireland“Ireland cannot fix this itself. This cannot come from inside … [it] needs pressure from the other capitals and from the [EU]Commission,” Irish data-rights activist warns.
On 1 July this year, Ireland takes the rotating EU presidency and agenda powers on the crown jewels of EU tech laws: “That should make you worried,” says activist Johnny Ryan.
Water-resource conflicts already happening in Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands will only worsen now that the EU Commission plans to triple data centre capacity in Europe over the next five to seven years. Little thought has been given to the oligopolistic cloud market and how it will evolve if the EU triples its data centre capacity.
