About 60 UK officials working in the European Commission have secured Irish passports since March 2017, when London invoked Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to launch the country's EU withdrawal process, to maintain opportunity for promotion, media reported on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th February, 2020) About 60 UK officials working in the European Commission have secured Irish passports since March 2017, when London invoked Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to launch the country's EU withdrawal process, to maintain opportunity for promotion, media reported on Wednesday.
According to the RTE broadcaster, UK officials can continue working in the EU institutions after Brexit but their promotion opportunities are weaker compared to officials with EU nationalities. The broadcaster said, citing sources, that about 10 percent of 569 officials working in the European Commission and who were originally from the United Kingdom currently held Irish passports.
The situation poses dilemma for the Irish government, which can not make distinctions between Irish passport holders working in the EU institutions but at the same time fears that officials of Irish origin could be "passed over," the media stated.
The data revealed by the RTE broadcaster comes amid Dublin's growing concerns over the low number of Irish graduates applying for work in the EU institutions that coincides with the fact that a large cohort of senior Irish officials working in Brussels are over 58 years old and will soon retire. Currently, there are only 28 Irish EU officials at entry level, while there should be 68 in order to be proportionally represented for Dublin, the broadcaster said.
The United Kingdom officially left the European Union on January 31, completing a three-and-a-half-year process that began with the 2016 Brexit referendum. Until the year's end, the UK will be subject to EU rules and regulations as part of a transition period that gives both sides 11 months to strike agreements on a wide range of areas of cooperation, including trade.
