Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Before turning to the European Council, I wish to inform the House that I attended the formal ceremony to sign the reform treaty in Lisbon on 13 December. I was accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Roche. The Minister and I signed the treaty on behalf of Ireland.

The signing of the treaty is an important stage in ensuring that our Union focuses on the real challenges confronting us. The treaty is designed to equip the Union to manage 21st century challenges which are increasingly global in nature, such as globalisation, climate change, energy supply and cross-border crime. At the same time, it rationalises the EU's institutional framework so that it functions in a fair, efficient and effective manner. It also brings into force the Charter of Fundamental Rights to reflect the Union's values and underpin the rights of individuals across the Union. The intention is for the treaty to be ratified by all member states so that it can enter into force on 1 January 2009.

Consequently, as Members are aware, the treaty will be put to the people in a referendum next year.

I wish to repeat my welcome for the Opposition's willingness to work together with the Government towards the treaty's ratification. In that vein, I look forward to discussing the referendum with the leaders of the Opposition shortly. I know that the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dick Roche, have already met some of them in this regard.

I attended the European Council in Brussels on 14 December, again accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dick Roche. On this occasion, the Council was also joined for a short period by representatives of the social partners to discuss the social agenda and social partnership at EU level. As is normal, we had an exchange of views with the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering who stressed the importance of the EU reform treaty for Europe. President Pöttering is of the view that the European Parliament is a big winner in the EU reform treaty, principally because of the extension of co-decision.

We received a presentation from the Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, on the issue of migration, following the recent publication of the Commission's communication on immigration, Towards a Common Migration Policy. This is primarily concerned with migration from outside the European Union. While most of the recent immigration to Ireland has been from within the European Union following the enlargement from 15 member states to 27, the Government also is highly interested in the question of migration from further afield.

In his intervention, President Barroso stressed the need for member states to work together to deal with migration flows, which are likely to increase in coming years and which are of significant concern to citizens. He stated that migration can contribute to offsetting some of the consequences of Europe's population aging and stressed the need for consistency between policy areas such as employment, social security, social housing and housing policy in general. His general message on migration was that the issues are too important to be neglected. The Council welcomed the historic enlargement of the Schengen area to include nine new member states. From Friday, internal borders, with the exception of air travel, will be lifted for the nine new members. Moreover, the air borders will be lifted at the end of March.

The Council adopted a lengthy series of conclusions on freedom, security and justice, economic, social and environmental issues, as well as external relations. We noted developments on migration, strengthening police and judicial co-operation and improving civil law co-operation. The Council welcomed the recent presentation by the Commission of its Single Market review. A well functioning Single Market is hugely important to an open economy such as Ireland's. The Commission's review has identified a number of possible initiatives to improve the functioning of the market. Much of the work arising from the review will be addressed in greater detail in the lead-up to the European Council next spring.

The Council also welcomed the Commission's report on the renewed Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs. The Lisbon strategy now is generally accepted to be delivering more effectively as the European economies do better. The next phase of the Lisbon strategy also is likely to be discussed in more detail in spring.

Within the general area of competitiveness, the Council noted two developments that merit particular mention in the House. After difficult negotiations, agreement has been reached on the Galileo project, which is intended to deliver a global satellite navigation infrastructure by 2013. The Council welcomed the setting up of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, which should improve our return on research expenditure.

While the European Council was meeting in Brussels, the extremely important negotiations in Bali were in progress. Appropriately, the Council took the opportunity of underlining again the urgent need for a global, comprehensive and effective post-Kyoto agreement by 2009. Since then, agreement has been reached at Bali. The agreement has been welcomed by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, as a major step towards an international deal on tackling climate change. I also welcome the agreement reached and in particular the recognition that all countries must play a role in tackling climate change. Climate change is an immense challenge for the world and I am pleased that Europe has been leading the efforts to secure a global agreement.

Together with climate change, globalisation is throwing up some of the most important challenges and opportunities of this century. The Council adopted a declaration on globalisation that highlighted the need for the Union to work for an equitable and sustainable framework for the distribution of the benefits of globalisation. The declaration emphasised a number of important themes, including the delivery of the Lisbon strategy, fulfilling the Union's commitments on climate change and energy, improved operation of the financial markets, trade liberalisation and intellectual property protection, taking responsibility for global security and stability, migration policy and development, which includes Europe's commitments under the millennium development goals.

Overall, the declaration takes a balanced and positive approach to globalisation, which is welcome. One is confronted too often with the negative consequences of globalisation without acknowledgement of the many potential benefits and opportunities that arise, such as job creation and foreign direct investment.

On this occasion, the Council devoted a large proportion of its time to consideration of external relations issues. While there was some discussion of Iran, most of the focus was on Kosovo and consequently, also on Serbia. At Ireland's initiative, the Council also highlighted the issue of Burma where the situation continues to be very serious. There is a continuing need to remind the Burmese military regime that the international community is engaged actively on this issue.

As for Kosovo, we discussed the report from the Contact Group troika on the conclusion and failure of the Kosovo status talks. The European Council thanked the troika for its efforts and regretted that the parties had not been able to find agreement on a common way forward. The issue will now revert to the UN, where it will be discussed by the UN Security Council, beginning on 19 December. The Council considered the position to be adopted by the EU and underlined the need to move forward towards a Kosovo settlement, which is required for regional stability.

There was strong emphasis on the importance of a unified European Union approach and for the European Union to make clear its willingness to take the lead internationally in helping to manage and resolve this European problem, including by means of the planned European Security and Defence Policy, ESDP, rule of law mission and a contribution to an international civilian office as part of the future international presence in Kosovo. Ireland is ready to play its part and remains committed to playing an active and positive role, including through its substantial commitment to the KFOR military presence, as well as participation by the Garda in the planned ESDP mission.

The European Council agreed to establish a reflection group to reflect on the future of the EU over the period 15 to 20 years ahead, that is, from 2020 to 2030. The group will not deal with institutional issues or cut across the EU reform treaty in any way. The Government believes the group can make a useful contribution to ensuring the turning of our minds to emerging challenges and opportunities in good time and in that sense ensure that we prepare earlier for them. Under the Presidency's guidance, the Council agreed to nominate former Spanish Prime Minister, Felipe Gonzalez, to chair the group and nominated two vice-chairs, namely, the former Latvian President Vike-Freiberga and Jorma Ollila, the chairman of Nokia.

The Government has suggested Mr. Pat Cox as someone who is excellently suited to the work of the group. While it is likely to be some time before the group's membership is finalised, I of course would be pleased were he to feature among the eventual members. The remaining membership of the group is not expected to be finalised until well into 2008 and it will report by the end of 2010.

The Council conducted its business efficiently. There is a very clear sense now that the signature of the EU reform treaty will allow Europe to move on from a long internal discussion to concentrate on meeting the real and developing challenges in a fast changing world, including migration, international crime and trafficking, climate change, energy security, international trade, development issues and issues of peace and stability.

As the European Council concluded last Friday, ratification of the EU reform treaty will put an end to institutional reform for the foreseeable future. The focus now in that regard will be for each member state to get on with the process of ratification according to its domestic procedures. I note that Hungary has already ratified the treaty. In Ireland, an extensive information campaign on the detail and implications of the treaty will be rolled out in the coming months. I look forward to engaging with the public when they are given the opportunity to consider the EU reform treaty next year. Its approval will be in the interests of the public, Ireland and Europe.

See this speech in context