Neutral Ireland Takes on European Council Presidency

Europe’s centre of gravity has shifted from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Atlantic coastline. After six months of Cypriot leadership, Ireland has taken over the Presidency of the European Council. Dublin is using this opportunity to set its own priorities.

At first sight, Ireland’s Presidency programme might be a surprising read. The island nation, which prides itself on its neutrality stance, has made security one of the focus policy areas for the coming six months. Far away from wars and conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Ireland still profits from its seemingly remote geography. But looking more closely at the challenges that confront the nation, the fact that security will be central to its Presidency becomes less surprising.

Known for its digital economy prowess, Ireland is poised to profit from the rise of artificial intelligence. With one of the highest concentration of data centres in the world, which have come to consume 21 percent of its electricity use, Ireland has further enhanced its stature as a digital powerhouse. As Europe’s Atlantic outpost, it has for a long time been one of the most important nodes for submarine data cables. The AI boom is reinforcing this: Amazon’s plans to build a mega cable running between County Cork and Maryland for AI data transmission is only the latest addition to an intricate web of submarine critical infrastructure off the Irish coast.

With this dynamic, Ireland’s prosperity is increasingly dependent on the safety of critical infrastructure on the seabed inside its exclusive economic zone. Recognising the challenges that exist in this realm – the Russian navy and shadow fleet tankers frequently engage in suspicious activities off its coast – the Irish government published a maritime security strategy early this year. Underscoring this commitment, Defence Minister Helen McEntee promised to make maritime security a focus of its Council Presidency.

Ireland’s concerns about security on the seabed show in its defence investments, with submarine surveillance systems such as towed sonar arrays and a sonobuoy investment programme featuring heavily in a 1.7 billion € naval upgrade. However, while the Atlantic country is doubling down on surveillance, capabilities to defend (rather than merely observe) the submarine realm are conspicuously absent. In this way, Ireland’s defence investment strategy looks a lot like that of a country staking its security on close cooperation with partners. That much is said in its new maritime security strategy, which – among other things – mentions the Joint Expeditionary Force (a British-led group of countries pooling maritime military resources) as a group with which it seeks further cooperation.

According to Barry Colfer, Director of Research at the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin, the Irish Presidency’s emphasis on security is part of a political shift that has happened over the past three to four years: “There is a devout and sincerely held attachment to neutrality by a vocal minority. Meanwhile, there has been a clear decoupling in public sentiment between being neutral and being defenceless. There’s a clear understanding now that you can be both neutral and able to defend yourself, which the state currently cannot do by itself.”

All of this comes at a time when EU member states debate the nature of the bloc’s mutual defence clause (Article 42.07 TEU). During its Presidency, Cyprus pushed hard to give the concept more meaning, making it one of the focus topics of the informal Aya Napa summit in April 2026.

On this score, Colfer puts what Irish neutrality means today in perspective: “Ireland will be stoutly supportive of European mutual defence and its role within it. It will of course want to retain the option to choose which activities to be involved in, like all other countries would. What you see I think is that the Irish government is sense testing how comfortable the population is with defence cooperation by strengthening bilateral links with the likes of France and the United Kingdom. Activities framed as “partnerships”, rather than “alliances’’, seem to be pretty acceptable to the public.”

Beyond security, the digital economy will be a larger focus of the Irish Presidency. On 14 October, it will host an AI Summit in Dublin as a central part of its Presidency. However, senses seem to be in Ireland that building its economy around digital services requires a security policy reset for a new era.

Marius Strubenhoff works as an independent expert on foreign and security policy. In this capacity, he works for the Centre for European Policy, where he reports on French EU policy and EU foreign policy issues. Previously, he headed the foreign and security policy department of the Berlin office of the European Leadership Network for several years and lectured at the University of Sheffield. Marius Strubenhoff was born and raised in Hamburg and has lived in Kyiv, London and Cambridge, among other places. He has been living in Paris since October 2025. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge and a master's degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.