Today marks the start of Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union. From July to December 2026, Ireland will lead the Council, launching a new Trio Presidency that will subsequently be taken forward by Lithuania and Greece.

The second half of 2026 is expected to see discussions on several major files, including the review of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), the revision of the Public Procurement Directives, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the Grids Package and the Electrification Action Plan. Together, these proposals will play a key role in determining whether Europe can simultaneously strengthen its competitiveness, enhance energy security, and stay on track to meet its climate targets.

Under the guiding motto “Strength with Unity”, the Irish Presidency has structured its programme around three priorities: competitiveness, European values, and security. On competitiveness, it highlights the importance of the One Europe, One Market Roadmap, including efforts to simplify the regulatory framework and strengthen the EU’s response to the energy crisis.

Bellona Europa encourages the Irish Presidency to advance discussions and debates on climate, energy and industrial files, while resisting pressure to prioritise speed over substance. Delivering outcomes within tight timelines is important, but not at the expense of climate integrity or policy quality.

Preserving the climate integrity of the EU ETS and CBAM

We encourage the Irish Presidency to pursue an agenda aligned with the goal of delivering 90% emission reductions by 2040, ensuring environmental integrity and achieving the necessary structural change. The Presidency will begin discussions and negotiations among Member States on the review of the EU ETS. With other elements of the 2040 climate package expected to be tabled by the European Commission by the end of 2026, close coordination between institutions will be essential to ensure policy coherence. The Presidency will begin discussions and negotiations among Member States on the review of the EU ETS.

By leveraging this leadership to align constituent parts and safeguard policy coherence across all pillars, the Presidency can leave its mark on the European climate agenda, not by treating each file in isolation, but by seeing them as pieces of a single, coherent system. The true legacy will lie in recognising that ambition is not a fixed sum but a dynamic balance: any concession in one area creates an opening to raise the bar elsewhere.

As negotiations progress, Bellona encourages the Presidency to preserve and enhance the essential role of the EU ETS in improving European resilience, industrial competitiveness, and energy security. The reform must cement the ETS as an enduring innovation driver that rewards frontrunners and demonstrates how proactive climate policy serves as an investment catalyst. Achieving these objectives requires a systemic approach to the policy levers under review (the Linear Reduction Factor, the Market Stability Reserve, the phase-out of free allowances, and the increased channelling of revenues towards decarbonisation), each of which must be calibrated not in isolation, but as part of a coherent whole that preserves the system’s climate integrity and investment signal. Central to that integrity is ensuring that international carbon credits do not play a direct compliance role under the ETS, so that the price signal remains unambiguous and the incentive to decarbonise within Europe stays intact.

The Irish Presidency will also take forward the work on the proposed extension of the CBAM Regulation, including facilitating interinstitutional negotiations with the European Parliament. This presents a real chance for Ireland to cement the CBAM’s credibility as a cornerstone of EU climate action. However, the Article 27a, which would allow one or more products to be removed from the list of goods covered by the mechanism, should not be retained. Likewise, carbon credits should not be recognised as part of the carbon price paid in third countries as already agreed in the Council general approach. By standing by these principles, the Presidency would not only protect what has already been achieved, but also send a clear signal that the EU’s carbon border measures are robust, non-negotiable, and built to last.

The next EU budget, competitiveness and climate hand in hand

The Irish Presidency recognises the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) as a keystone of EU policy. We commend its support of a forward-looking EU budget, in particular for climate and energy priorities. Ambitious investments will be needed to ensure energy affordability and build EU competitiveness, while meeting climate objectives.

To truly deliver on this ambition, the National Energy and Climate Plans’ (NECPs) unexplored potential as investment planning tools must be unlocked, by building on them as baseline for climate investments under the MFF and highlighting funding gaps to fill. In addition to supporting projects needed to reach the climate targets, this would allow Member States to design their own investment pathways. By supporting projects that contribute to the net-zero transition, the Presidency would allow the EU to reap the benefits of cheaper decarbonised industrial processes and increased innovation, as well as resilient and strategic energy systems. This will require robust climate and social conditionality in the allocation to avoid financing projects that delay the transition or fail to address workforce and community impacts.

Grids and electrification, moving together or not at all

Energy sits at the heart of the Irish Presidency’s programme, with electrification and grid infrastructure identified as the central levers for a more secure, affordable and decarbonised energy system.

The Grids Package matters beyond permitting reform and PCI (Projects of Common Interest) status, it is the EU’s planning process, shaping the Ten-Year Development Plan (TYNDP) and the investment decisions that follow for a decade or more. A key aspect of the Grids Package is governance. Clear, transparent rules for how planning is carried out, with input from all the stakeholders who need a seat at the table, is needed. Current planning puts too much focus on supply-side assumptions, rather than on the value that demand side can bring through flexibility and storage. It should also improve in its forecast of future demand, in anticipation of a decade of intense electrification of industry. We want the Presidency to push for a governance model with real climate and scientific scrutiny built in, so that energy efficiency and flexibility are properly accounted for, and grid investment is built around where electricity demand is needed to increase competitiveness and decarbonise our industry.

The Electrification Action Plan is due during the Presidency, alongside supportive files like the Network Charges and Taxation proposal. Together, these are the chance to make electrification the cornerstone of industrial decarbonisation. Electrification is a direct route to lower emissions and reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels, and a competitiveness lever through more stable access to clean power. We ask Ireland to push this agenda forward with real weight, with an electrification target designed with safeguards: judged on whether emissions are actually falling, not simply a target measuring electricity consumption.

The EU Hydrogen Strategy is set for a revision the second half of this year. This revision should be grounded in scientific integrity and climate ambition. Hydrogen is scarce, and its production carries significant energy losses. Using it where direct electrification is viable wastes renewable electricity and slows the transition. We ask Ireland to push for a revised strategy that prioritises hydrogen for sectors with no realistic electrification alternative.

The new construction wave: an opportunity to scale clean materials and machinery

With access to housing being one of the major crises the EU is facing, the topic of affordable housing appears many times in the Presidency programme. The expected wave of new construction across Europe is a unique opportunity to provide more and better social housing while also advance circularity and industrial decarbonisation. Public and private buyers must include circular and low-carbon criteria in tenders and project contracts, strengthening demand.

The revision of the Public Procurement Directives (PPDs) and the publication of the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) are two crucial opportunities to create lead markets for low-carbon construction materials and production: 31% of the construction sector‘s purchases are tied to public procurement. Still, more work is needed as the targets proposed in the IAA are not enough to generate the necessary demand for low-carbon materials and products to make the measure meaningful. For this reason, Bellona asks for at least 75% low-carbon steel quotas and 50% low-carbon concrete for public procurement, also depending on the requirements defined in the implementing measures of the Construction Product Regulation (CPR) and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).

Even though the Programme does not mention steel explicitly, it is a cornerstone of the IAA. The expected steel label was not included in the final proposal, which deferred it to the low-carbon definitions to be designed under the ESPR and CPR instead. Bellona recommends to the Council to make swift progress in putting forth a credible, ambitious framework that enables the steel industry’s transition to competitive low-carbon technologies.

Moreover, we call for moving away from lowest price criteria in public procurement in favour of mandatory environmental and social requirements. To reach the targets, though, it is essential that the ongoing revision of the European standards for cement and concrete goes in the direction of performance-based standards and expands the list of eligible compositions to allow low-carbon solutions to be freely marketed in Europe.

In addition to low-carbon materials, construction is also an incredible chance to reduce pollution in construction sites. The deployment of electric machinery, still profoundly underutilised despite its many benefits, allows to reduce fossil fuel dependency, to improve air quality in our cities by eliminating associated emissions, as well to limit noise and vibration. Electrified construction sites improve dramatically human health and comfort for both citizens and workers. However, they remain a niche instead of the norm.

The good news is that the EU’s regulatory backbone is set to facilitate the deployment of electric construction machinery. However, revisions and updates to existing policies are still needed. We recommend that the Presidency promote the definition of a “Zero-emission Machinery Action Plan”, establishing phase-in goals for construction equipment and effectively leveraging the role of measures such as the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Non-Road Mobile Machinery Regulation, the Environmental Noise Directive, and the Ambient and Air Quality Directive in driving this transition. Importantly, this Presidency should focus on revising the long-debated Energy Taxation Directive to ensure that any unfair advantage granted to diesel-powered equipment is phased out. Similarly, well-designed Clean Vehicles Directive and PPDs are essential to ensure that public demand is directed towards socially and environmentally responsible products, also for this market segment. Last but not least, we want to remind the Presidency and the other Member States that the Directive on workers’ protection from exposure to carcinogens and mutagens already provides a strong legal basis for requiring the private sector to use zero-emission equipment. Zero-emission machinery is, to date, the only solution to prevent workers’ exposure to harmful diesel exhaust emissions.

Preparing the ground for the post-2030 climate framework

We welcome the Irish Presidency’s plans to prepare the ground for discussions on the implementation package of the EU 2040 climate target later this year. In this context, we encourage the Presidency to explore a range of options for designing this framework in a way that clearly distinguishes between gross emission reductions, the LULUCF sector, and permanent carbon removals. High-quality international carbon credits should be considered only within a separate strategic reserve, rather than directly being integrated into compliance policies.

The Presidency’s commitment to supporting the continued development of high-integrity frameworks to mobilise private investment in carbon removals and nature restoration is a positive signal. However, public support and policy incentives will also be essential to scale up these activities. There is a valuable opportunity to advance robust, science-based methodologies for the certification and role of carbon farming activities within the Carbon Removal and Carbon Farming (CRCF) framework, especially with Ireland’s expertise on the restoration of peatlands. Furthermore, there needs to be room for the Presidency to facilitate discussions on strengthening policies and incentives to reduce agricultural emissions and source domestic biomass even more sustainably with upcoming challenges for a key finite resource.

We welcome the Presidency’s emphasis on the EU’s role in ensuring the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and its commitment to providing strong and coordinated leadership at key international climate and environmental negotiations. The Irish Presidency will take place in the run-up to COP31 in Türkiye. While the EU demonstrated leadership on mitigation at COP30, its engagement on issues of particular importance to developing countries, such as climate finance and adaptation, did not always reflect the level of ambition expected of a global climate leader.

Bioeconomy

The Irish Presidency places a strong emphasis on the bioeconomy as a driver of innovation and value creation. However, delivering on this ambition requires going beyond adding value to primary production. A truly sustainable bioeconomy must prioritise the efficient use of all biomass streams, including secondary and tertiary resources, and direct them towards the highest-value applications. Establishing a robust biomass value hierarchy is thus essential to ensure that limited biological resources are used strategically, prioritising food, feed and materials over energy, and maximising climate benefits.

Recognising the bioeconomy’s potential to create new economic opportunities for rural and coastal communities must go hand in hand with making better and more efficient use of biological resources. In this context, greater attention should be given to underutilised and sustainable biomass sources, including low-trophic aquaculture, such as kelp. Scaling these systems can support coastal livelihoods, diversify income streams, and reduce pressure on land-based biomass production, while contributing to climate mitigation and ocean health. To ensure long-term resilience, marine protection and active ecosystem restoration must be pursued in tandem.

Furthermore, as discussions on nature credits advance, it is necessary to ensure that such a mechanism delivers real, measurable ecological improvements. Nature credits must not serve as offsetting tools or substitutes for emissions reductions and strong biodiversity regulation. Without clear guardrails, this framework risk weakening environmental ambition rather than driving the systemic change needed to halt biodiversity loss.

In this regard, the Irish Presidency will hold the Global Bioeconomy Summit on the 19^th-21^st of October 2026, with themes covering innovation, sustainable development, policy markets and metrics, and fast looking for 2040. Mapping out the current nexus of EU and global policies related to the bioeconomy but also carbon removals and LULUCF will need to be evaluated and discussed to ensure policy coherence to deliver impacts for land sinks and meeting national climate targets.

The missing piece: Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

While the Irish Presidency rightly places competitiveness, industrial resilience and the clean energy transition at the centre of its agenda, the role of carbon capture and storage (CCS) receives surprisingly little attention. Yet for many energy-intensive industries, including cement, lime, chemicals and waste management, CCS remains the lowest-cost route for achieving deep emissions reductions while maintaining production in Europe. As the Presidency recognises, Europe’s long-term competitiveness will depend on building a modern, resilient and climate-neutral industrial base. For sectors facing the challenge of reducing harder to abate emissions, this competitiveness agenda cannot succeed without the rapid deployment of CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure.

This omission is particularly notable given that the European Commission is expected to publish its CO₂ Infrastructure and Market Regulation during the Irish Presidency. The proposal is set to become one of the most important industrial decarbonisation files of the current mandate, addressing key barriers that currently prevent the scale-up of carbon management across Europe. By creating a more coherent framework for CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure, improving market transparency, enabling cross-border CO₂ flows and providing greater regulatory certainty for investors, the legislation has the potential to unlock the infrastructure needed for industrial decarbonisation at scale. Swift progress on this file will therefore be essential not only for meeting the EU’s climate objectives, but also for safeguarding the long-term competitiveness of European industry.

Conclusion

Bellona Europa calls on the Irish Presidency to use the start of this new Trio Presidency as an opportunity to set a strong and coherent direction for Europe’s climate, energy and industrial agenda. As discussions advance on the review of the EU ETS, the post-2030 energy and climate framework, the Multiannual Financial Framework, and key industrial and energy files, it will be essential to ensure that these initiatives are developed as part of a single, integrated strategy rather than in isolation.

Progress on the revision of the Public Procurement Directives and the Industrial Accelerator Act can help create the lead markets needed for low-carbon materials, while strategic investments in grids, electrification and resilient energy systems can accelerate Europe’s transition to a competitive net-zero society. The Global Bioeconomy Summit offers an important platform to advance discussions on sustainable resource use, land-use policy and the role of the bioeconomy in achieving climate neutrality.

By keeping climate ambition, competitiveness and energy security moving in the same direction, the Irish Presidency can help lay the foundations for a resilient and climate-neutral Europe. Ultimately, success will be measured not only by what is achieved on individual legislative files, but by how effectively they are brought together into a coherent framework for Europe’s long-term transition.