{"id":329802,"date":"2025-08-09T05:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T05:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/329802\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T05:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T05:53:09","slug":"ireland-will-use-eu-presidency-to-advance-competitiveness-tanaiste-told-amazon-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/329802\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland will use EU presidency to advance competitiveness, T\u00e1naiste told Amazon \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tech company Amazon<\/a> has been told by T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> that Ireland will use its presidency of the European Union<\/a> next year to \u201cadvance the competitiveness agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris also told executives from the online retail and cloud computing giant that Ireland has worked to \u201ccontrol what we can control\u201d in the current economic climate. This is a key Government message against a backdrop of uncertainty over US trade tariffs<\/a> on EU goods. <\/p>\n

Amazon, which employs 6,500 people in Ireland and has invested some \u20ac22 billion here since 2004, has been vocal in recent years on the need for Europe to boost its competitiveness. <\/p>\n

Last month The Irish Times reported that the company has scrapped plans for a \u20ac300 million industrial plant in Dublin<\/a> because it could not secure an electricity supply for the project.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, met representatives of Amazon in Government buildings on May 21st.<\/p>\n

A Government note of the meeting was released after a Freedom of Information law request.<\/p>\n

It says: \u201cThe T\u00e1naiste referenced the current economic climate and listed a number of upcoming initiatives as Ireland worked to control what we can control. Steps in train include the summit on competitiveness and the Action Plan for Competitiveness and Productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The note adds: \u201cThe T\u00e1naiste highlighted Ireland\u2019s presidency of the Council of the European Union from July to December 2026 where Ireland will also continue to advance the competitiveness agenda. Developments at EU level were noted including as regards simplification and supporting innovations.\u201d <\/p>\n

During Ireland\u2019s eighth presidency, which it will share with Lithuania and Greece, Irish representatives will chair meetings of EU ministers in the EU Council, steer the council\u2019s legislative and policy agenda and lead engagement with other EU institutions.<\/p>\n

In recent months Amazon has been publicly pushing for measures it argues would improve EU competitiveness.<\/p>\n

These include easing \u201cregulatory compliance burdens\u201d for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) regarding producer responsibility recycling schemes that deal with waste items such as packaging and batteries.<\/p>\n

Recent online posts show Amazon wants digital labelling of products, the \u201csmooth implementation\u201d of a planned EU VAT \u201cone-stop shop\u201d, and better charging infrastructure for electric commercial vehicles. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Amazon fiasco is bad news for Ireland IncOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

One of the participants in the meeting between Amazon and Mr Harris, the company\u2019s vice-president for EU public policy Lucy C Cronin, wrote last month that the current Danish presidency of the EU has prioritised a \u201csecure Europe\u201d and a \u201ccompetitive and green Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Cronin said the Danish government \u201cplans to \u2018focus on regulatory simplification and better regulation in the EU to ease daily operations for businesses and other stakeholders\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

She suggested two areas \u201cwhere the Danes can turn these aspirations into a meaningful upside for EU SMEs \u2013 and therefore EU citizens\u201d are: \u201cThe simplification of fragmented extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes\u201d and \u201cthe progression toward digital labelling\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amazon declined to comment on whether it has asked the Irish Government to focus on specific areas during its EU presidency.<\/p>\n

The other Amazon attendees at the meeting with Mr Harris were vice-president and UK and Ireland country manager John Boumphrey, Amazon country manager for Ireland Alison Dunn and AWS country lead Niamh Gallagher. <\/p>\n

The note of the meeting says Amazon updated Mr Harris on the launch this year of its Irish store Amazon.ie, of developments in its cloud computing business, and its climate action initiative.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Staff at loss-making Amazon subsidiary in Dublin earned average \u20ac124,000 last yearOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The meeting took place before the deal last month between the EU and US that sees 15 per cent tariffs apply to goods entering the US from the EU.<\/p>\n

The note says Mr Harris spoke about the Government\u2019s \u201cefforts to support industry\u201d and its trade forum and how that body \u201cwould be happy to engage with Amazon\u2019s sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Harris is said to have \u201chighlighted the Government\u2019s willingness to work with the sector in navigating the present economic uncertainty\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tech company Amazon has been told by T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris that Ireland will use its presidency of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,679],"class_list":{"0":"post-329802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-irish-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114997258165849273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}