00:01Ireland has officially taken over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council, succeeding Cyprus.
00:09Ireland will steer negotiations among the other 26 member states
00:13and craft delicate, sometimes fragile, compromises that can satisfy all the disparate voices in the room.
00:20At the very top of Ireland's to-do list is a new package of sanctions against Russia,
00:25which this time comes with a hard deadline for July 15th.
00:30If there is no deal by then, the EU will automatically revise its price cap on Russian oil.
00:36Because of ongoing disruption on the energy market, the formula will push the cap well beyond the current $44 per
00:43barrel
00:44and grant Moscow economic relief, a politically untenable scenario.
00:49Regarding enlargement, Ireland is keen to unblock the five remaining clusters with Ukraine,
00:54but is aware of Budapest's entrenched reluctance.
00:58Dublin hopes that one or two clusters could be opened before the summer break,
01:03with the remaining ones addressed gradually afterwards.
01:07Ireland will have to tackle the next seven-year EU budget head-on.
01:11The previous presidency drew the ire of the frugal countries
01:15after proposing a moderate 2% cut to the Commission's original 2 trillion euros blueprint.
01:21Ireland will be tasked with coming up with revised numbers for each heading,
01:25hoping to find a sustainable middle ground between those who want to preserve the traditional envelope,
01:32namely agriculture and cohesion, and those who want to bolster the modern priorities,
01:37such as climate action, innovation, technology and defence.
01:40.
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