Ireland is supposed to act as an honest broker on some of the EU’s most contentious files, including future digital rules and corporate tax reforms. Critics argue it has too much skin in the game. Some of the world’s leading economists and technology experts have urged Dublin to step aside from key negotiations during its EU presidency. The European Commission dismisses the allegations and has thrown its full support behind Ireland.
At the beginning of July, Ireland took over the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, chairing meetings, coordinating member states and helping forge compromises. During its term, negotiations will advance on several landmark pieces of EU legislation, including major digital rules and tax reforms.
A group of academics, however, argues that Ireland is not the right country to steer those discussions. In an open letter, they called on Dublin to sit them out, citing a potential conflict of interest: “Given Ireland’s questionable record regarding the protection of EU digital rights and the EU’s fiscal base that we synthesise below, we the undersigned call on Ireland to recuse itself from any role in these two areas during the Irish presidency of the European Union.”
Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok, and X all selected Ireland to be the location of their EU headquarters. This turned the Irish Data Protection Commission into the primary data watchdog for the EU. — Open letter from academics
The signatories include Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff, University College London economist Mariana Mazzucato and Oxford digital rights expert Sandra Wachter. Instead, they propose that Lithuania, which is next in line to hold the presidency from January 2027, should chair discussions on those files.
Google, Meta and Apple all call Ireland home
The academics’ main concern centres on Ireland’s unique place in Europe’s digital economy. Over the past few decades, the country has become the European base for many of the world’s biggest technology companies. Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok and X all have their European headquarters there.
That gives Ireland’s Data Protection Commission an exceptionally powerful role. Under the GDPR’s one-stop-shop system, the national regulator in the country where a company has its main European headquarters oversees its activities across the EU.
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As the academics put it: “Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, OpenAI, TikTok, and X all selected Ireland to be the location of their EU headquarters. This turned the Irish Data Protection Commission into the primary data watchdog for the EU.”
They argue, however, that Ireland has never matched that responsibility with equally robust enforcement. In their view, Dublin now finds itself regulating companies that also make up a significant part of its own economy.
Under scrutiny over Big Tech enforcement
The letter focuses particularly on what the authors describe as the Irish regulator’s slow handling of investigations into major technology firms. They point to Google, arguing that Ireland has still not completed a single EU-wide investigation into the company despite years of GDPR enforcement.
We have full confidence and trust in the ability of the Irish presidency to carry out its role in full independence and in defending the EU interests. — Paula Pinho, Commission spokesperson
They also highlight the long-running dispute over Meta’s handling of users’ personal data. According to the academics, Ireland even challenged a 2023 decision before the EU courts that required it to continue investigating Meta’s practices.
The authors also question the close links between the regulator and the tech industry itself. They note that one of Ireland’s three current Data Protection Commissioners, Niamh Sweeney, previously served as Meta’s chief lobbyist in Ireland.
European Commission: We trust Ireland
The European Commission has firmly rejected claims that Ireland’s presidency poses any problem. “We have full confidence and trust in the ability of the Irish presidency to carry out its role in full independence and in defending the EU interests,” Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said.
The Commission also defended its cooperation with Ireland on digital regulation. It argued that Dublin’s central role reflects the concentration of major technology companies in the country and has proved essential in enforcing landmark legislation such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the AI Act.
“The enforcement structure of the DSA has worked extremely well. Especially with Ireland and Dublin playing a key role when it comes to the enforcement of the digital legislation,” spokesperson Thomas Regnier added.
According to the Commission, the proposals currently under discussion, spanning digital regulation, cybersecurity and taxation, all aim to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness.
Tax policy has divided Europe for years
The academics’ second major criticism concerns Ireland’s corporate tax model. For decades, Ireland attracted multinational companies with a low corporate tax rate and built one of Europe’s most important hubs for global business. Critics have long argued that the model effectively turned the country into a corporate tax haven, allowing some companies to shift profits from elsewhere in Europe and slash their tax bills.
The best-known example remains Apple’s long-running battle with the European Commission. In 2016, the Commission ruled that Apple had to repay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland, plus interest, after receiving what Brussels considered unlawful tax advantages. The case centred on the so-called “Double Irish” scheme, which Ireland later abolished.
The academics argue that broader concerns about Ireland’s tax model have not disappeared.
A presidency built on difficult compromises
The row over digital regulation and taxation represents only one part of Ireland’s packed presidency agenda. Dublin’s priorities include boosting the EU’s competitiveness, strengthening security, defending European values and maintaining support for Ukraine.
Ireland will also help steer negotiations on the EU’s next seven-year budget, which will set the bloc’s priorities for 2028–2034, while continuing talks on future enlargement.
This marks Ireland’s eighth presidency of the Council of the EU. It comes at a particularly delicate moment, as the bloc tries to balance innovation, citizens’ rights and tougher rules for the world’s largest technology companies.
Against that backdrop, questions over whether Dublin can remain an impartial broker on some of the EU’s most sensitive files are unlikely to disappear any time soon.
