President Tüttő visits Irish parliament

The President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), Kata Tüttő, on 8 October told members of the Irish parliament that proposed reforms to the European Union's long-term budget posed a serious risk to regional development and to the Common Agricultural Policy.

Speaking to the Irish Parliament's Joint Committee on European Union Affairs, President Tüttő said the reforms, which would come into force in 2028, would not just reduce the amount of money available for agriculture and regional development in Ireland, but would also weaken the link between local communities and the EU by centralising management of EU funding at the national level.

Proposals outlined by the European Commission in July 2025 would place EU funds for agricultural and cohesion policies in a single national fund under management by national governments – ideas that President Tüttő characterised as an "unprecedented, ambitious and extremely harmful attempt to centralise and re-nationalise the European project, and particularly our common investment policies".

She said that "regions must continue to play a key role in designing, managing and implementing EU programmes" and that EU funding for different purposes – such as rural development and agriculture – should continue to be organised through dedicated funds, "to avoid complexity and competition among objectives".

President Tüttő was addressing members of both the Dáil and the Seanad, the lower and upper chambers of the Irish parliament. She also met: EU Affairs Minister Thomas Byrne; Verona Murphy, the leader of the Dáil, the lower chamber of parliament; and Barry Ward, chair of the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs.

She was joined in the Irish Oireachtas by members of the Irish delegation of the European Committee of the Regions, which is led by Gillian Coughlan of Cork County Council.

During her visit to the Republic of Ireland, President Tüttő also visited cycling projects in Dublin and the Bluebell community development project, and met local officials and youth representatives. 

The Republic of Ireland will assume the six-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2026.  

Quote:

Kata Tüttő, President of the European Committee of the Regions: "We are confronted with an unprecedented, ambitious and extremely harmful attempt to centralise and re-nationalise the European project, and particularly our common investment policies. The new proposal contradicts the partnership principle, the participation of local actors in shaping investments, the evidence that EU funding can be effective only by mobilising local knowledge."