Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 10, inclusive, together.

I travelled to Berlin on 31 May for a meeting with Chancellor Merkel and Prime Minister Reinfeldt of Sweden. This meeting was a part of a series of consultations by Chancellor Merkel with prime ministerial colleagues in advance of the Presidency report to the June European Council. Our discussions focused in particular on preparation for the European Council and the prospects for the constitutional treaty.

I attended the European Council on 21, 22 and 23 June in Brussels, accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs. As I will make a statement to the House on the Council later this morning, at this stage I will merely give a summary account of its proceedings.

Discussions at the Council focused primarily on the Presidency's proposals on the treaty reform process and suggestions for the way forward. In its report to the Council, the Presidency put forward a proposal that a reform treaty be introduced which would amend the existing treaties. The reform treaty will retain the balance and substance of the draft EU constitutional treaty concluded during the Irish Presidency in 2004.

The Council agreed on a mandate for a short intergovernmental conference, IGC, which will commence during the Portuguese Presidency. The discussions included significant political questions, such as those on voting weights and the charter of fundamental rights; an agreed approach to these and other issues was adopted in the Council's conclusions. The IGC will be tasked with elaborating the reform treaty based on the mandate agreed by the European Council.

On other matters, the European Council congratulated Malta and Cyprus on their accession to the euro area and we adopted a number of important conclusions concerning the Union's ongoing and external relations business. We adopted an EU strategy for a new partnership with central Asia. This strategy will serve as an overall framework for EU relations with central Asia. A first progress report on the strategy will be submitted to the European Council by the middle of 2008.

Within the realm of justice and home affairs, the Council welcomed the progress already made in implementing the priority actions as part of the global approach to migration, and called for work on these priority actions to be taken forward and intensified. We agreed to review the state of implementation of the comprehensive migration policy at the December European Council meeting.

The protracted debate on the reform treaty meant that time available for other topics was limited. Nonetheless, the conclusions recorded that the European Council welcomed the recent engagement between the President of the Commission and the new Northern Ireland executive and underlined the European Union's longstanding and continuing support for the peace process.

The President of the European Commission attended the European Council as normal and was a full party to the discussions. There are no plans for any further bilateral meetings.

I will make a detailed statement to the House shortly regarding the European Council. I have not yet received an agenda for the October European Council. Regarding my travel plans for the remainder of 2007, I propose to attend the informal meeting of the European Council in Lisbon on 18-19 October and the European Council in Brussels on 13-14 December. A wider programme of official visits, taking account of Ireland's strategic international interests, is currently under consideration.

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