Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste will be pleased to learn that the committee has taken a role in preparing a paper on how we can enhance the involvement of national parliaments in the European semester. We will be discussing the matter with our colleagues from 20 different states in Copenhagen next week. We hope the outcome will be a set of recommendations that we can offer to President Van Rompuy with the intention of having them implemented across the Union.

In regard to the compact for growth and jobs and the Tánaiste's final point about relations with Russia I have a question about the EU association agreement with Ukraine. I understand the former President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, and the former President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, are currently in Ukraine dealing with the various outstanding issues in the agreement. Following from last month's EU-Ukraine summit, what efforts are we making in the Presidency to build consensus across member states on finalising the association agreement?