Representing Europe: Inside the Council Legal Service

In the past decade, the European Union has faced unprecedented challenges; the first withdrawal of a Member State from the Union, increased irregular migration flows, and international conflict on European soil. These events pose legal, as well as political, challenges which the legal services of the EU institutions must navigate. The Council Legal Service assists the European Council, the Council, and its preparatory bodies in ensuring the legality and the drafting quality of acts and contributes to identifying legally correct and politically acceptable solutions to the challenges faced by the EU. In her address to the IIEA, Emer Finnegan, Director General of the Council Legal Service, discusses how European law has been used to respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and how the Legal Service assists the institutions in responding to other major political challenges for the EU. About the Speaker: Emer Finnegan is the Director-General of the Council Legal Service and the Legal Counsel of the European Council. She is the first Irish national and the second woman to hold these posts. Ms Finnegan has worked in the Council Legal Service since 1999 and was made a Director in the Service in 2015. As a Director, she was responsible for legal issues in the Competitiveness, Environment, and Transport, Telecom, and Energy Councils, and for legal issues concerning Employment, Social Affairs, Education, Agriculture and Fisheries. Ms Finnegan was closely involved with the negotiations on the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the UK, and she has extensive experience representing the Council before the Court of Justice of the European Union.