I propose to take Questions Nos, 3 to 17, inclusive, together.
As I outlined in my comprehensive statement to the House on 29 March, I attended the Special European Council in Lisbon on 23 and 24 March. In advance of the summit, I submitted on 6 March, to Prime Minister Guterres, Ireland's national response to the Presidency paper on the content of the European Council. I also copied it to our European partners and made it available publicly. The paper focused on our priorities for the summit. I also submitted a joint paper with Prime Minister Blair on 16 March highlighting areas of common concern for our two countries on which we wished to see progress during the summit. I have placed both our national response and the joint paper in the Dáil Library.
While I do not propose to repeat my statement in full, it is important to restate that the summit set the Union a new strategic goal for the next decade, namely, to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.
The summit focused on the Union's competitiveness across a wide range of areas but, more specifically, on harnessing the potential of Europe's greatest asset – its people and its innovation and knowledge base. The targets set for investment in human resources and a wide range of research and investment are fully in line with our goals under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and the national development plan.
The Lisbon European Council marks an important step in closing the gap between the European and US economies. I am particularly pleased that the outcome of the summit reflected so much of the principles and values that underpin our approach at home. The conclusions demonstrate the Union's level of recognition for the potential contribution which the information society can make to the lives of everyone. In this context, I welcome the high priority that the Commission and the European Council are giving to rapid expansion of low cost, high speed Internet access. The availability of broadband and other advanced communications infrastructure and services at low costs is one of the prerequisites of an economy based on innovation and knowledge.
I welcome the commitment given for the establishment of a European charter for small business which should commit member states to focus on small companies as the main engines for job creation in Europe and to respond specifically to their needs.
As regards the Single Market, EU leaders gave a commitment to speed up liberalisation in areas such as gas, electricity, postal services and transport. Furthermore, it was agreed that the financial services action plan should be implemented by 2005. In addition, full implementation of the risk capital action plan by 2003 will be ensured.
With regard to the key priority of social inclusion, the summit marked an important step in efforts to mainstream the promotion of inclusion in member states' employment, education and training, health and housing policies. The summit also acknowledged that the European social model needs to be adapted to ensure its long-term sustainability in the face of the Union's aging population, promote social inclusion and gender equality and provide quality health services.
Importantly, it was also agreed that the European Council would assume a stronger guiding and co-ordinating role in relation to economic policy to ensure a more coherent strategic direction and effective monitoring of progress. The European Council will accordingly hold a meeting every spring devoted to economic and social questions.
As I have reported separately, I met with Prime Minister Blair during the course of the summit. We discussed the latest developments in Northern Ireland as well as the issues on the agenda of the European Council.
As I indicated to the House on 29 February, following my visit to South Africa, I wrote to Commission President Prodi in January on the issue of HIV/AIDS in developing countries. My letter stressed the need for greater collective action and suggested that there was a case for reviewing the resources devoted to this issue both at Community level and in the member states. I also raised the issue of access for developing countries to medicines necessary for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
President Prodi has replied, outlining his shared concerns about the AIDS crisis and indicating that the Commission would welcome a discussion on the issue at Council level in the near future. Such a discussion might be based on the review of the implementation of the existing Council regulation governing Community expenditure on HIV/AIDS in developing countries. I have also received responses from Prime Minister Rasmussen of Denmark, Prime Minister D'Alema of Italy and Chancellor Schussel of Austria expressing strong support for my call for a strengthened international response to the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS.
I understand that, following discussions with the Portuguese Presidency, the issue of HIV/AIDS will now be discussed by Development Ministers at their Council meeting on 18 May. Ireland is doubling expenditure on HIV/AIDS related activities in our bilateral aid programme to over £2 million. We have also more than tripled our contribution to UNAIDS to £250,000. We have mainstreamed the fight against AIDS into all of our development activities. Further national contributions to HIV/AIDS related activities are under consideration.
The Africa-Europe Summit held in Cairo on 3 and 4 April under the aegis of the Organisation of African Unity and European Union was a unique occasion that brought together Heads of Government from EU and north and sub-Saharan African states for the first time. A total of 67 countries were represented at the summit. The holding of this summit was first proposed during our Presidency of the EU in 1996 and Ireland has always been supportive of the proposal. I was, therefore, particularly pleased to attend the summit and I was accompanied by the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy O'Donnell.
The primary concerns of the summit, which are reflected in the declaration and plan of action agreed at the summit, were economic co-operation and integration of Africa into the world economy, the challenges of achieving sustainable development, action to strengthen and support democratic principles of governance and health issues, particularly in relation to the ongoing struggle against HIV/AIDS.
The Irish contribution to the development panel of the summit laid particular emphasis on the challenges faced by African countries in achieving sustainable economic and social progress development in light of the very heavy burden of debt which they bear and the historical legacy of underdevelopment and the ravages wrought in recent years by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the brunt of which has been borne by sub-Saharan Africa. In making these comments we highlighted Ireland's traditional and ongoing commitment to assisting in the continent's development through the Government's overseas development aid programme and through the work of Irish NGOs, both secular and religious. Throughout the summit my EU colleagues and I also sought to emphasise the importance of the role of civil society working with Government in achieving and securing economic and social progress.
In the weeks leading up to the summit, officials from my Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs were in constant contact with the Egyptian authorities, as hosts of the summit, and officials from other participating states. Arising from these contacts, during the course of the summit I met with President Mubarak of Egypt, Colonel Ghadaffi of Libya, President Obasanjo of Nigeria, President Chissano of Mozambique, President Mpaka of Tanzania, President Musevini of Uganda and President Mbeki of South Africa. I also held a number of short meetings relating to Security Council issues with representatives of other countries. During these meetings we discussed matters of mutual economic and political interest, the work of the summit and the prospects for deepening EU-African relations. All the leaders I met in the course of the summit expressed their interest and support for the peace process in Northern Ireland and I took the opportunity to update them on the situation.
At all the meetings I took the opportunity to highlight Ireland's campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council and to seek support for our campaign. In addition to attending the various working sessions of the summit, I attended a dinner hosted by President Mubarak and a lunch hosted by Prime Minister Guetteres. I was accompanied at these functions by the Minister of State and the Irish Ambassador to Egypt. I am confident the summit will mark the beginning of a new era of co-operation in EU-Africa relations given the progress made in focusing on debt relief, developing a plan of action and the necessary framework for monitoring implementation.
On a separate matter, the Prime Minister Mr. Blair wrote to me on 14 April 1999, seeking my support in opposing the proposed directive on droit de suite. I replied at that time indicating our support for his position in opposing the directive on the basis, inter alia, that decisions on whether to apply droit de
suite should remain with member states on the basis of subsidiarity. Since that time the matter has been extensively discussed at various levels in the Union, most recently on 16 March at the internal market council, where it was noted that agreement had been reached on a compromise package which will allow a common position on the proposed directive to be adopted formally by Council in the near future.
In keeping with the normal protocol on such occasions, I sent a letter of congratulations to President-elect Putin on Monday of last week. I took the opportunity to indicate to Mr. Putin that it will fall to him to consolidate and extend the democratisation of Russian society, to oversee the process of economic and social reform and to achieve a political settlement of the Chechnya problem.
Finally, I met the Secretary General of the European Council and high representative for the common foreign and security policy, Mr. Javier Solana, on Friday, 31 March. Mr. Solana, in his new role, is conducting a tour of EU member state capitals. We had a useful meeting in which our discussions centred on the western Balkans, Russia, the Middle East, security and defence, development, enlargement and the Intergovernmental Conference. In particular, we discussed the current proposals regarding European security and defence.
In this context, I reiterated that developments in this area should continue to be framed on the basis of the Amsterdam Treaty and that they should be focused on the Petersberg Tasks. I was grateful to be reassured by Mr. Solana that the current progress on this issue will not lead to consideration of the introduction of a mutual defence commitment into the EU context. The focus will remain crisis management and peacekeeping.