The IBEC Europe office represents the interests of IBEC members at European Union level on an individual, sectoral and national basis through its advocacy work to the EU institutions on draft policy and legislation directly affecting members.
What we do
The office is located in the heart of the Brussels European area. We actively engage with the
European Commission, Members of the European Parliament and the Irish Government’s representation to the EU to shape and influence draft policy and legislation to benefit Irish business.
We help you to understand the EU decision making process and advise you on how best to influence the outcome.
How we develop policy strategies
We meet regularly with the European Affairs Policy Committee, which keeps a watching brief of all significant European developments in order to get an overall view of where developments are going and what the implications are for Ireland and our competitiveness. The Committee has primary responsibility for IBEC positions on horizontal EU issues including institutional developments, any Treaty changes, EU Budget and the rolling priorities of the various institutions and the Council Presidencies.
The Committee is composed of members across the IBEC membership and representing all major sectors and normally meets four times a year. The Committee is chaired by Mark Ryan from Accenture.
Contact us
IBEC Europe
Ave de Cortenbergh 89
1000 Brussels
Telephone: +32 2 512 33 33
Email: ibec.europe@ibec.ie
› Recent EU news
EU Heads of State and Government focused mainly on energy and taxation issues when they met in Brussels on 22 may. They agreed that affordable and sustainable energy is crucial to the economies of the EU and that, therefore, completing the internal energy market, deployment of major infrastructure and security of supply are the main priorities. On taxation, they agreed that tax fraud and evaision limits countries' capacity to raise revenue and carry out their economic policies. To try to address this agreed to speed up work in fighting tax fraud and evasion and aggressive tax planning. More specifically, they will prioritise work on promoting and broadening the scope of the automatic exchange of information at all levels.
› Other EU news
EU finance ministers agreed to give a mandate to the Commission to negotiate updated savings tax agreements with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and San Marino when they met on 13 and 14 May in Brussels. On tax evasion and tax fraud, they agreed on the importance of combining efforts being made at national, EU and global levels, and to support work within the G8, the G20 and the OECD on the automatic exchange of information. Heads of State and Government will review these issues when they meet on 22 May.
› Other EU news
Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, for the Irish Presidency of the EU, met with the President of the European Parliament and the President of the European Commission on 6 May to try to progress the negotiations for the EU’s post 2014 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). It resulted in an agreement to start formal negotiations on the MFF, along with amending the budget for 2013, which will be agreed in two stages. Work on both will take place in parallel, beginning with the first trialogue negotiations on Monday 13 May.
› other EU news
IBEC has a dedicated Irish Presidency website for the six-month Irish Presidency of the EU.