The chief criticism levelled at the EU is that decision-making is held up, thwarted even, by member states putting their national interests ahead of the collective good.
According to insiders, getting agreement, even qualified-majority agreement, is like herding cats.
Mario Draghi’s 2024 report on European competitiveness identifies the lack of co-ordination as the primary block on productivity and the chief reason why the EU, economically, has been left behind by the US and China.
The contrast between the Irish Government’s opposition to the Mercosur trade deal and its full-throated support for the EU–India deal – Taoiseach Micheál Martin described it as a “breakthrough” and “a positive opportunity” – illustrates the point.
The difference between the two positions will no doubt be rationalised by officialdom (opposition to Mercosur was couched in concerns about environmental standards) but it boils down to one thing: beef.
Mercosur gives Brazil, the biggest beef producer in the world, a foot in the EU’s door, a potentially damaging development for Irish farmers, particularly if the initial tariff quotas are increased up the line.
The Irish Farmers’ Association, one of the State’s most powerful lobby groups, successfully colonised the Government on the issue despite the reservations of certain ministers including Martin.
So when Italy defected from the No camp (the group of countries opposed to Mercosur), Ireland could freely oppose the deal, maintaining the goodwill of farmers, while confident the deal would pass by qualified majority at council level, a win-win for the Government but an entirely cynical position for Ireland to adopt.
The India deal involves little or no beef for obvious reasons, India is largely Hindu, and opens the door to increased whiskey and milk powder exports.
According to the latest data from the International Wine and Spirits Record (IWSR), Irish whiskey sales in India surpassed 700,000 cases in 2024, a 57.5 per cent growth year-on-year, and a 900 per cent increase since 2020.
“This [the deal] will greatly ease trade with the biggest whiskey market in the world, and it facilitates market diversification at a pivotal time for our sector,” the head of the Irish whiskey Association, Eoin Ó Catháin, said.
Total Irish goods exports to India were valued at just under half a billion euros in 2024.
As the controversy over Bord Bia chairman Larry Murrin’s company Dawn Farms using Brazilian beef in its meat products rumbles on, it’s worth noting that the record €19 billion of Irish food and drink exports achieved last year rests – almost entirely – on the EU’s ability to forge trade deals with other trading blocs, something the farming community here rarely, if ever, acknowledge.
A much bigger threat to the interests of farmers here is the likelihood of the UK, where 50 per cent of our beef exports go, doing a trade deal with Mercosur.
The EU is known to drive a hard bargain on trade but the UK, without the bloc’s heft behind it and because of its sluggish economic since Brexit, could be pressed into allowing much greater access.