Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The European Council took place in Brussels on 15 and 16 June. In advance of the meeting, I informed Chancellor Schüssel of Austria, the President in office of the European Council, that I would be unable to attend as the State funeral of the former Taoiseach, Mr. Charles Haughey, coincided with the European Council.

Before the European Council, I spoke with the Chancellor, and also with Commission President Barroso, and conveyed Ireland's views on some of the key issues on the European Council's agenda.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and the Minister of State for European affairs, Deputy Noel Treacy, represented Ireland at the European Council. The conclusions have been laid before the House.

The June European Council took place just over a year after the French and Dutch referendums on the European constitution. At the June 2005 European Council, the Heads of State or Government agreed to have a period of reflection and debate in all of the member states. The Council also agreed to come back to the matter in 2006 to have an overall assessment of the national debates and decide how best to proceed.

During the period of reflection, we have done much in Ireland to encourage debate and engagement with the European Union. The Government, the National Forum on Europe, Europe Day in the Dáil, activities undertaken by the European Movement and others have all encouraged people to focus on the challenges facing the European Union. The Minister for Foreign Affairs has issued a short report on the period of reflection in Ireland which is available on his Department's website.

The European Council agreed to extend the period of reflection. More time and further work are needed before firm decisions on the future of the constitutional treaty can be taken. This reflects the reality that there are different views on what to do. Ireland remains firmly committed to the constitution. We want it to enter into force as soon as circumstances permit.

The Council's conclusions noted that 15 member states have now ratified the constitution and expressed the hope that the ratification process will be completed in line with the conclusions of the June 2005 European Council. This belies the notion that the constitution has been abandoned. It remains at the centre of the ongoing debate about the future of Europe.

The European Council approved a two-track approach during the period ahead: the delivery of concrete results for the public and, at the same time, extensive consultations on the constitution, which will result in a report to next June's European Council on the way forward. We will support both the Finnish and German Presidencies in this work.

The conclusions mention 2008 as a date by which necessary steps will have been taken to allow the process advance. This represents a shared commitment to take the necessary decisions by that time. This reinforces the widely held view that while the way forward is very far from clear, it will begin to become clearer next year. In the meantime, the EU will work hard on its challenging agenda. The message we have taken over the past year is that the public is interested in the Union delivering results. I have been emphasising this point in my interventions at the Council and it is generally accepted.

The European Union will push ahead to fight crime and terrorism, deal with the challenges of energy and climate change, promote economic growth and job creation under the revitalised Lisbon Agenda and pursue initiatives on roaming charges and other issues that strike a chord with the citizen. It is important to keep in mind that Europe continues to work and nowhere is this more the case than the continuing success of the euro. The European Council agreed that Slovenia would adopt the single currency in January 2007. The entry of one of the new member states to the eurozone marks a watershed in the process of European integration.

The Council also commended Lithuania for its progress towards meeting the criteria for the single currency. While Lithuania was disappointed that its entry to the eurozone was not proposed by the European Commission on this occasion, I am confident that Lithuania and the other new member states will be admitted in the near future.

The European Council also supported useful work underway to ensure that EU citizens can avail of the consular services of all the member states around the world. Every year EU citizens take over 180 million trips outside of the EU. It makes sense that the member states should co-operate more closely in providing a first class consular service to our citizens. This will also be of benefit to our people who are travelling ever more extensively around the world.

In Ireland, the National Forum on Europe and the Oireachtas will continue to play the central roles in stimulating debate and raising awareness of key European issues which affect our country and its people. In addition to this delivery agenda, the European Council took some steps to bring EU decision-making closer to the citizen. It adopted an overall policy on transparency which provides that all Council deliberations under the co-decision procedure shall now be public. Ireland has strongly supported efforts to make the Council of Ministers more open, especially when it is legislating. This represents important progress.

The European Council also welcomed the recent commitment by the Commission to make all new proposals and consultation papers directly available to national parliaments, inviting them to react so as to improve the process of policy formulation. The European Council asked the Commission to consider comments by national parliaments, in particular with regard to the subsidiarity and proportionality principles.

The European Council also discussed the future enlargement of the Union. On the one hand, there is widespread recognition that the accession of the ten new member states has been a great success. It has given tangible proof that Europe can be reunited after more than half a century of imposed division. The prospect of EU membership is a huge incentive for encouraging reform and stability in neighbouring countries of great significance to the EU. On the other hand, we know the EU must manage the process carefully. We cannot become over-extended or over-burdened. The European Commission will issue a report on future enlargement, including the EU's absorption capacity, in the autumn. This specific analysis will include the issue of the present and future perception of enlargement by citizens and will take into account the need to explain the enlargement process adequately to the public within the Union.

The December 2006 European Council will debate all aspects of future enlargement. The European Council reaffirmed our common objective of welcoming Bulgaria and Romania as full members of the EU in January 2007. It called on both countries to tackle without delay the remaining issues of concern mentioned in the Commission's May 2006 report. The European Council welcomed the start of substantive accession negotiations with Turkey. It recalled that the negotiating framework for accession negotiations with Turkey includes the fulfilment of Turkey's obligations under the association agreement and under its additional protocol. There will be a full evaluation in December of the implementation of these commitments. The European Council also welcomed the start of substantive accession negotiations with Croatia. It encouraged Croatia to continue its reform efforts and to achieve sustainable progress towards the fulfilment of EU standards.

On the external relations side, the European Council adopted declarations on the western Balkans, Iran, Iraq, the Middle East peace process, Africa, Lebanon and Timor-Ieste. On the Middle East peace process, it endorsed the proposed temporary international mechanism, which has been drawn up by the European Commission, to channel assistance directly to the Palestinian people. The mechanism will focus on essential supplies and running costs for social services and health, the supply of utilities, including fuel, and social allowances. The European Community stands ready to contribute a substantial amount to the international mechanism. The European Council urged Iran to give an early positive response to the far-reaching initiative proposed by the EU High Representative, the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, the UK, China, the Russian Federation and the United States.

Overall, the recent European Council was an opportunity to take stock of where Europe now stands both in terms of work designed to meet the expectations of our people and also on the future of the European constitution. The general focus now is on showing the people of Europe that, by working effectively together, we can deliver real benefits on their behalf. There is a broad acceptance, however, that in order to ensure the European Union can face up to intensifying external competition, and also deal with its internal economic and social challenges, we will have to return to the European constitution. We all want to ensure that this future discussion is properly prepared and takes place in the right context. The recent European Council, therefore, took important decisions to achieve this objective. In showing that Europe continues to progress and develop, it gave a clear signal that Europe is determined to overcome the current difficulties as regards the ratification of the European Constitution.

I extend my congratulations to Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and his team for conducting an excellent Presidency at a difficult time for the European Union. We have enjoyed excellent co-operation with the Austrian Presidency which was conducted in an effective and efficient way.

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