Dinny McGinley
Question:32 Deputy Dinny McGinley asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the recent discussions he has had with the Presidency of the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5333/09]
View answerThursday, 12 February 2009
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Written answers
I have regular contacts with the Czech Presidency, including at the monthly meetings of the General Affairs and External Relations Council, the most recent of which took place on 26 January. On that occasion, I had a bilateral meeting with the Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra and Foreign Minister, Karel Schwarzenberg.
At that meeting, we discussed the follow-up to the conclusions of the December European Council on the Lisbon Treaty in which the Council committed itself to providing Ireland with legal guarantees in three areas where concerns surfaced during our referendum campaign — taxation, Ireland's traditional policy of neutrality, as well as the right to life, education and the family — and to confirming the high importance the European Union attaches to social issues, including workers' rights.
As provided for in the conclusions of the European Council, work on these guarantees now needs to be completed to our full satisfaction and, to that end, I look forward to working closely with the Czech Presidency in the coming months.