Benelux Seminar: 60 years of cooperation celebrated in Ireland

On the 18th of October the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade oF Ireland hosted a seminar, in collaboration with the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg Embassies, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Benelux cooperation, on the topic ‘Amplifying the voice of smaller Member States in the EU’

© DUB The seminar was hosted at the beautiful Iveagh House, the home of the Department OF Foreign Affairs and Trade. Renowned Dutch journalist and writer Caroline de Gruyter gave the keynote address, focusing on the joint interest of smaller Member States OF the European Union, post Brexit. Smaller countries, in her view, will need to rely on each other more and, realising their common interest, have started building new coalitions. Caroline de Gruyter's engaging keynote speech initiated an exchange of views between panel members and the audience, astutely moderated by Ms. Noelle O’Connell, Executive Director of the European Movement Ireland. The panel consisted of, alongside Ms. De Gruyter, Mr. Thomas Antoine, Secretary General of the Benelux Union, Dr. Mario Hirsch, Visiting Senior Research fellow of the EU Institute for Security Studies, Prof. Alexander Mattelaer, Director of European Affairs at the Egmont Institute and Mr. Bobby McDonagh, former ambassador of Ireland to the UK, Italy and the EU. Tellingly, Ms. O’Connell opened the discussion with the followig quote from First Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans: “there are two kinds of Member States in Europe: small ones, and those who don’t know yet they are small”.