IIEA Talks

In his address to the IIEA, Bekim Sali, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of European Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia, will discuss the 25th Anniversary of the Ohrid Framework Agreement and its role in peacebuilding across the region. 

Bekim Sali serves as First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of European Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia. In this capacity, he contributes to advancing the country’s European integration agenda, strengthening institutional coordination, and fostering cooperation with European institutions and international partners. His previous public service includes serving as Minister of Health from 2022 to 2023 and as a Member of Parliament from 2024 to 2025. He has a professional background in healthcare and dentistry and holds a Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje.

In his current role, he works to advance North Macedonia’s EU accession process and support the reforms necessary for the country’s progress towards European Union membership.

As Lithuania prepares for its second Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2027, the IIEA was delighted to welcome Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kęstutis Budrys, for a discussion on the country’s priorities and ambitions at a pivotal moment for Europe. Taking over from Ireland as part of the Ireland-Lithuania-Greece Trio Presidency, Lithuania will help guide the Council’s work against a backdrop of significant geopolitical change. This conversation explores Lithuania’s outlook on the future of Europe and the challenges and opportunities facing the EU in the years ahead. 

Kęstutis Budrys has served as the Chief National Security Adviser to the President of the Republic of Lithuania and Head of the National Security Group. He has also served as Secretary of the State Defence Council and Chairman of the Intelligence Coordination Group. In December 2024, he assumed the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.  

Mr Budrys has more than 20 years of experience in national security. He served for six years as Deputy Director of the State Security Department, Lithuania’s civilian intelligence and security service. In this position, he was responsible for technological intelligence disciplines, intelligence analysis, and threat prevention. From 2009 to 2015, Mr Budrys was Adviser to the President of the Republic of Lithuania on intelligence and defence policy. Prior to 2009, he held senior positions in the field of intelligence analysis.  

Mr Budrys studied at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science of Vilnius University, where he earned a BA in Political Science and an MA in International Relations. He has also completed academic internships at universities in the United States and Canada.

More than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sanctions remain a central element of Europe’s response. Successive packages have expanded restrictions on Russian energy, finance, trade, technology and military-industrial supply chains, while measures against Belarus reflect its support for Russia’s aggression and the continuing repression carried out by the Lukashenka regime.

In this keynote address and moderated discussion, David O’Sullivan will examine how the EU can sustain economic pressure over the long term. The discussion will explore the effectiveness of existing measures, the challenge of sanctions fatigue, the importance of international coordination, and the steps needed to close the enforcement and circumvention gaps that could otherwise weaken Europe’s response.

David O’Sullivan has a long and distinguished career in the European Public Services, spanning over four decades and he has served in several senior official posts. Prior to his appointment as Sanctions Envoy, he was the Director-General of the Institute of International and European Affairs. Mr O’Sullivan served as Ambassador of the European Union Delegation to the United States from 2014 to 2019. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador to the US, he was Chief Operating Officer of the EU’s new diplomatic service, the European External Action Service. He had previously held a number of senior positions within the European Commission including Director General for Trade (2005-1010), secretary General of the European Commission (2000-2005), and Chief of Staff to Commission President Romano Prodi (1999-2000). Before Joining the Commission, he started his career with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, serving from 1977 to 1979. Mr O’Sullivan is a Member of the Governing Board of the King Baudouin Foundation as well as the European Policy Centre.

In his book Blue Heart, Vice Admiral Mark Mellett (Rtd.), former Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces and former Chief of the Irish Naval Service, argues that the defining crises of the twenty-first century - climate change, energy insecurity, geopolitical instability, food vulnerability, and the erosion of democratic resilience - are converging at sea. Drawing on a lifetime in naval command, international security, and ocean governance, Mellett examines how the ocean has quietly sustained the modern world: regulating climate, absorbing carbon, carrying global trade, supporting food systems and enabling the undersea digital networks on which economies now depend. Yet this vast living system is under mounting pressure from warming waters, biodiversity collapse, overexploitation and intensifying strategic competition. From the North Atlantic to the deep waters west of Ireland, from vulnerable undersea cables to contested energy infrastructure, Blue Heart reveals an ocean becoming both more fragile and more geopolitically significant. Mellett explores the rise of hybrid maritime conflict, the risks posed by failing governance systems, and the profound implications of climate disruption for migration, sovereignty, and global security. He argues that ecological security and human security can no longer be separated, and that we must recover our sense of belonging to nature if we are to protect the blue heart of the planet that keeps us alive.

Vice Admiral (Ret.) Mark Mellett is a leader whose career bridges defence, environmental stewardship, and leadership on complex global challenges. The first naval officer appointed as Ireland’s Defence Forces Chief of Staff and the country’s longest-serving defence chief in over fifty years, he has commanded at sea and ashore, with service in the North and South Atlantic, as well as in Afghanistan and Lebanon. Trained at the Royal Naval College Greenwich, the Irish Military Command and Staff College, and the US Naval War College, he has led operations at national and international levels, including Ireland’s military Covid-19 response. He was appointed a Commander of the Légion d’Honneur by the President of the French Republic and was awarded two Distinguished Service Medals by the Irish government. Holding a PhD in Ecosystem-Based Ocean Governance, he founded Green Compass, advising on climate action, ocean sustainability, and strategic risk. He chairs the boards of the Irish Maritime Area Regulatory Authority and Sage Advocacy, Ireland’s National Independent Advocacy Service for older people. He serves as Chair of the Advisory Council of the Azure Contemporary Forum on Security. He is a Life Fellow of the Irish Management Institute, and Co-Council Chair and a founding member of CaraDem, Ireland’s democracy institute.

To mark the UN International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, Mary Robinson will deliver a keynote address entitled “Women Farmers as Agents of the Change We Need in Farming.” 

She will be joined by Sinéad McPhillips, Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who will chair a panel discussion featuring Hannah Quinn-Mulligan, Professor Karen Keaveney and Aoife Franklyn. The panel will offer their reflections to Mrs Robinson’s address, bringing perspectives from farming, rural development, sustainable food systems and public policy to a discussion of how Ireland can build a more resilient, equitable and sustainable agri-food future. 

Mary Robinson is a co-founder of Project Dandelion, which is a women-led global campaign for climate justice, Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice at Trinity College Dublin, and a member of The Elders. She served as President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is a member of the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honours and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the President of the United States Barack Obama. Between 2013 and 2016, Mary served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change leading up to the Paris Agreement and in 2016 as his Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate. Her Foundation, the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, established in 2010, came to a planned end in April 2019. 

Chair Biography  

Sinéad McPhillips was appointed Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on 2nd October 2025. Sinéad entered the public service as a school leaver beginning as an Executive Officer in her current department in 1986. She has also worked in the Department of Energy and as a researcher with the Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development. 

Panellist Biography  

Hannah Quinn-Mulligan is an organic dairy and beef farmer based at Tory Hill House in County Limerick. Farming alongside her mother and grandmother, she runs an organic micro-dairy that processes milk into products sold through the farm shop, alongside organic beef, pork and eggs. Her work is rooted in the belief that farming for value rather than volume can support both viable family farming and positive outcomes for nature. Hannah has also worked as a journalist and presenter with RTÉ, the BBC and the Irish Independent. 

Professor Karen Keaveney is Associate Professor and Head of Rural Development in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University College Dublin, where she also directs the MSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. A human geographer and qualified regional and urban planner, her research focuses on community-led local development, rural governance and co-design for evidence-based policy. She was a member of the European Commission’s Rural Pact Coordination Group from 2023 to 2026 and chairs the National Decarbonising Zone Advisory Group. Karen previously lectured in Rural Spatial Planning at Queen’s University Belfast and is a member of the Royal Irish Academy Geography and Geosciences Committee. 

Aoife Franklyn is a researcher, consultant and project manager working across environmental policy and sustainable food systems. Her interests include agroecology, ethics of care, policy coherence across agriculture, environment, food and health, and pathways for food-system transformation. She has worked across South East Asia, Afghanistan, Africa and the EU with organisations including UN Environment, the UN Development Programme, governments, universities, research institutes, civil-society organisations and indigenous communities.