Constantin Gurdgiev: Eurogroup has ignored Brexit risks to Irish economy

Today’s Eurogroup agenda includes two key items of critical importance to Ireland. The first one is the debriefing on the results of the sixth post-programme surveillance missions to Ireland by the ESM and the IMF. The second is the presentation by the IMF of the main findings from its euro area Article IV annual consultation covering the 2016 preliminary results.

Both sets of briefings are likely to be framed by the continued developments in the UK’s march toward Brexit. This week’s discussions come on foot of the UK’s Supreme Court ruling thattriggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty will require a vote by the Parliament. The court also ruled that the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies did not have to vote on the matter, effectively clearing two potential hurdles to Article 50 activation.