Great first call with Minister @ThomasByrneTD today. Ireland leads the @EUCouncil Presidency and the UK remains committed to delivering on shared priorities: economic growth, security, and defence readiness. 🇬🇧🇮🇪🇪🇺

It was wonderful meeting European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Evian earlier today. At the start of this year, India was proud to host them for our Republic Day celebrations. This has been a great time for India-EU ties as we have concluded the Free Trade Agreement. During our talks, we discussed how to further deepen economic linkages in the times to come. Our growing cooperation can play an important role in strengthening peace, stability and prosperity in today’s global environment. @vonderleyen @EU_Commission @eucopresident @EUCouncil

🚨 EU ANNOUNCES 2027 MIGRANT RELOCATION COUNTRIES AS HUNGARY AND SLOVAKIA REFUSE PARTICIPATION The European Commission designated four countries under “migratory pressure,” making them eligible for asylum-seeker relocations through the EU Migration Pact’s 2027 “Solidarity Pool”: 🇪🇸 Spain 🇮🇹 Italy 🇬🇷 Greece 🇨🇾 Cyprus Six countries classified as facing a “significant migratory situation” may request exemptions: 🇵🇱 Poland 🇨🇿 Czechia 🇭🇷 Croatia 🇦🇹 Austria 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 🇪🇪 Estonia Exemptions require qualified-majority approval by the EU Council. Participating states must accept relocated asylum seekers, contribute financially (generally €20,000 per relocation), or provide operational support. Two countries refuse participation: 🇭🇺 Hungary 🇸🇰 Slovakia Both reject the relocation system and its financial obligations, although EU rules remain legally binding. @visegrad24

The EU Council, the body representing EU member state governments has approved a position that would let companies train AI on Europeans’ personal data without consent. It would make AI training a recognised “legitimate interest” under GDPR one of the legal bases companies can use to process personal data without asking for permission under the current framework, AI training on personal data generally requires consent or a clear, specific legal basis this proposal shifts that. what “legitimate interest” means in practice: the company decides that its interest in using your data outweighs your interest in not having it used. The draft also proposes letting companies keep sensitive personal data that ends up in training sets “accidentally” if removing it would require “disproportionate effort.” with safeguards, but still. Who benefits: companies that already hold large amounts of European personal data which are mostly American and Chinese AI firms. Max Schrems’s framing: “digital expropriation.” Europeans’ data being taken and handed to companies without the people it belongs to having a say. where it stands: the EU Council approved their position. the European Parliament must still agree. this is not law yet but the Council’s backing is a significant step.

The EU is again debating its controversial “Chat Control” plans, they claim that will helpfight child sexual abuse online, but the main dispute is over private messages. The EU Council wants authorities to be able to order online services to scan parts of their platforms for illegal content, including known and new child sexual abuse material and attempts to groom children. The question is how to protect children online without subjecting private communications to wider scanning.

🇪🇺HUGE: The EU's proposed €100 BILLION cap on tokenized securities is facing pushback from Nasdaq's €1.5 TRILLION counter. Nasdaq and 27 other firms have written to the EU Council arguing the proposed limit would constrain growth before it starts. European tokenization projects already exceed €350 BILLION, more than 3x the proposed cap. The EU's current limit sits at just €6 BILLION.

Good to welcome President @JakovMilatovic to Vilnius. We discussed Lithuania’s upcoming EU Council Presidency, Montenegro’s EU path, European security and defence, and our continued support for Ukraine. Lithuania strongly supports Montenegro’s EU membership aspirations. We will work to advance Montenegro’s accession during our Presidency in 2027.

Excellent to see Deputy Prime Minister @SimonHarrisTD today. I thanked him for Ireland’s strong and creative EU Council Presidency - and for hosting the ECOFIN meetings. Great to discuss our shared challenges and opportunities in lovely Dublin!

A warm welcome to Vilnius to President of Estonia @YlleMadise on her visit to Lithuania! Lithuania and Estonia are close friends and strong allies, united by shared values and a deep commitment to Baltic unity. We discussed regional security and NATO, continued support for Ukraine, energy security and strategic infrastructure, as well as Lithuania’s upcoming EU Council Presidency. Dear Ülle, I look forward to working together to strengthen our partnership and build a safe, strong and resilient Baltic region. 🇱🇹🇪🇪