Charlie O'Connor
Question:127 Mr. O’Connor asked the Minister for Finance if he will report on his Department’s endeavours in respect of Ireland’s EU Presidency; and his plans for the remainder of the term. [15753/04]
View answerWednesday, 26 May 2004
Questions (114)
Written answers
The EU Presidency has made substantial organisational and policy demands on my Department. These demands have been met very fully, a reflection of the good pre-planning and execution by the Department.
As Minister, I assumed the role of President of the Council of Economics and Finance Ministers of the EU, the ECOFIN Council, and the eurogroup — Finance Ministers of member states whose currency is the euro — with effect from 1 January this year for the six month period of the Presidency. This required drawing up a policy work programme for the Council and eurogroup in advance of the Presidency and chairing both the ECOFIN Council and eurogroup meeting held each month, January to June, to address this programme. Both the Council and eurogroup normally meet in Brussels or Luxembourg with one informal meeting per Presidency period in the member state which holds the Presidency.
Also as President of the Council I represented the ECOFIN Council and put forward its views at important international meetings with our global partners, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Group of Seven, G7, Ministers for Finance. I also attended, with the Taoiseach, the European Council meeting of heads of state or government in March in Brussels.
My Department and I hosted the informal ECOFIN Council meeting in Ireland on 2-4 April. Some 250 delegates and over 300 media personnel attended this event in Punchestown, County Kildare. Besides the 25 Ministers from the enlarged EU, the participants included the 25 national central bank governors, the President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, Commissioners Solbes, Bolkestein and Schreyer, President Trichet of the European Central Bank and President Maystadt of the European Investment Bank. The meeting was one of the largest to take place in Ireland during the Presidency and was regarded as being highly successful both on the organisational and policy aspects. Similarly the Minister of State at my Department, Deputy Parlon, hosted an important meeting of regional Ministers of the EU in Portlaoise, County Laois, on 26-27 February.
Other Presidency events hosted by my Department which required significant logistical preparation were the meeting of ASEM, Asia-Europe meeting at Finance Ministers' deputies level, in Cork in March, the recent meeting of EU budget officials in Tullamore and the meeting of directors general for public administration in Dublin Castle this week.
The work programme priorities that I set for the ECOFIN Council for the Presidency can be accessed on the Presidency website at www.eu2004.ie. Two of the most significant priorities in the programme were the promotion of economic growth and coping with the effects of enlargement. The overall programme could be summarised broadly under the following headings: preparation of ECOFIN Presidency’s key issues paper for the spring European Council on the Lisbon Agenda to promote the EU economy; examination of member states’ stability and convergence programmes under the stability and growth pact; integration of the new member states into the EU’s economic policy co-ordination and Lisbon processes; preliminary consideration of the post-2006 financial perspective that determines the medium-term framework for the EU budget, and the future regional policy in the EU; pushing forward with legislation in financial services and other sectors; and certain other areas, most notably the initiative for growth proposed by the Italian Presidency of the second half of 2003.
I can say at this point that this programme has been largely fulfilled. At the remaining ECOFIN Council meeting of 2 June in Luxembourg further progress will be made on economic policy co-ordination and on financial services.
My overall assessment would be that on both the organisational and the policy aspects, the Presidency, in the economic and financial areas represented by my Department and myself, has had a good record of achievement and in this respect has made a significant contribution towards the overall success of the Irish Presidency.