Enlargement and Internal Reforms

The IIEA Brussels Branch is delighted to invite you to join us for an event on the 3rd October, with Emer Finnegan, on the subject of Enlargement and Internal Reforms.

This will be an in-person event on the Thursday 3rd of October , starting at 19.00 at the offices of the Irish Permanent Representation, Rue Froissard 50 ,1040 Brussels. However, please do arrive by 18.45 at the location!

Following the event we will have a wine reception.

All very welcome to attend and we look forward to seeing you there.

This meeting is open to all IIEA Members--who will get priority for tickets booked in advance.

Description of the Event

At its meeting on 27 June, the European Council set out a roadmap for future work on internal reforms, stating that work should advance in parallel with the enlargement process, as both the Union and future Member States must be ready at the time of accession. The enlargement negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova were launched in Intergovernmental Conferences the same week.

Emer Finnegan will present the recent developments on these parallel tracks from a legal perspective.

Biography of the speaker

On 9 March 2023, Emer Finnegan, an Irish national, was appointed by the Council as Director-General of the Legal Service and Legal Counsel to the European Council and the Council. She joined the Legal Service in September 1999 and has been a Director in the Service since December 2015.

Since October 2018 she has been the Director responsible for legal issues in the Competitiveness, Environment, and Transport, Telecom, and Energy Councils. Prior to that she was the Director responsible for legal issues concerning Employment, Social Affairs, Education, Agriculture and Fisheries. Emer began her career in the Legal Service working on Justice and Home Affairs issues, particularly the Schengen acquis, borders and visa policy (1999-2003).

She spent eleven years working on External Relations legal issues, including restrictive measures (counterterrorism and geographical sanctions regimes), enlargement (including negotiations with several candidate countries and the negotiation of the Croatian Accession Treaty), relations with the Western Balkans, public international law, the International Criminal Court, and international human rights (2004-2015).

She was one of the legal advisers closely involved with the Intergovernmental Conferences on the Constitutional Treaty (2003-2004), and the Treaty of Lisbon (2007).

She was also closely involved with the negotiations on the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the UK. She has extensive experience representing the Council before the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Before joining the Legal Service, she worked as a référendaire in the Court of First Instance (now the General Court) in Luxembourg (1996-1999). Prior to that, she worked as a lawyer in Brussels and Dublin, and in the Internal Market Directorate-General of the European Commission.

Emer holds a BA (Hons) degree in Law and French (1986), and an LLB (Hons) degree in Law (1988), both from University College Galway, Ireland. She has a post-graduate qualification in Advanced European Legal Studies from the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium (1989). She qualified as a solicitor in Dublin in 1994.

We look forward to welcoming her at the IIEA Brussels.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Permanent Representation of Ireland to the European Union, Rue Froissart 50, Brussels, Belgium