The Irish Centre for European Law (ICEL) has appointed Hilkka Becker to its board of directors, and four new vice-presidents to its advisory council.

Founded in 1988, the ICEL promotes knowledge, understanding and good practices of EU law and European human-rights law across the island of Ireland.

Hilkka Becker has been chair of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal since April 2017. She was senior solicitor at the Immigrant Council of Ireland – and consultant with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), a solicitor in private practice, and also legal officer with the Irish Refugee Council.

Judicial expert

Becker also lectures at the Law Society and acts regularly as a judicial expert for the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA).

She will assist the board and staff in developing its European human-rights-law strategy.

ICEL has also appointed four vice-presidents to its advisory council, namely:

• Karen Banks (former Deputy Director General of the European Commission’s Legal Service),
• Attorney General Rossa Fanning SC,
• Professor Brigid Laffan MRIA (Emeritus Professor of the Robert Schumann Institute of Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence), and
• Professor Aoife Nolan (Professor of International Human Rights Law, University of Nottingham, President of the Council of Europe's European Committee of Social Rights).

ICEL President Advocate General Anthony M Collins, stated: “We are honoured that Hilkka has accepted our invitation to join the centre’s board and to lend us her considerable expertise in the area of European human-rights law. I look forward to working with her to strengthen the centre’s focus on this important area in the near future.”

“The four new vice-presidents bring with them a wealth of experience in fields such as national and EU constitutional policy and social rights. This will be of immense benefit to the centre as it adapts to a fast-changing and challenging legal, political and social environment.”

ICEL will host a free event on reforms to EU energy law at 5pm on Monday, 27 March, in the ESB Headquarters, Dublin 2.

Registration is essential and is now open.