Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

To deal with the second issue raised, I have had discussions over a number of years with Foreign Minister Maratinos of Spain as I know him from his past involvement as an envoy, and in the past two years I have had discussions with Prime Minister Zapatero. The idea is that they will discuss those issues with us, as well as issues of mutual interest. That meeting will take place shortly.

The question of economic nationalism in Europe was not discussed at the Council but there was strong media focus on the issue in advance of the meeting and there was obviously some discussion on the margins. Ireland is a strong and consistent supporter of the need for open markets because our economy is highly dependent on the free-flow of goods and capital. We strongly believe that in taking national economic measures member states must abide by the rules of the Internal Market. While the issue did not arise at this meeting, I have made that point previously and on the margins of this meeting told a number of colleagues that we should not try to invent new ways of frustrating cross-border economic activity in the EU when we face serious competitive challenges from countries outside the EU's borders, such as India and China.

As I told Deputy Kenny previously, many of our colleagues seem to miss the point. Even as countries in eastern Europe change, they take the view that protectionism helps in some way and do not realise from where the competition is coming. Increasingly, even since last Christmas, in any of the cases with which I have been involved with IDA Ireland — thankfully, the number of such cases is sizeable — the competition is coming from outside the EU. I had experience of this when I visited Silicon Valley with some of our larger companies recently. For some aspects of industry the competition comes from Switzerland while for others it comes from Puerto Rico, Bangalore and its surrounding state of Karnataka or certain regions in south-west China. The competition is not within Europe.

I am a firm believer that economic and social policy cannot be implemented in a vacuum. We must respond to and respect the deep-rooted concerns about the pace of reform, liberalisation and social costs and the balance between economic efficiency and social equity, and we must do so by working closely together at European level. For countries to go their own way is not the way to achieve this.

The issue of Belarus was discussed, mainly by the Foreign Ministers, in terms of conclusions. The Council declaration on Belarus announced the decision to take restrictive measures against those responsible for the violations of international electoral standards, including President Lukashenko. At the same time, it reiterated a commitment of the European Union to engage with Belarussian society by strengthening support for civil society and democratisation, and by intensifying contacts and access to independent sources of information. Work is under way with a view to translating those elements into concrete decisions. This is to begin with a meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council on 10 April.

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