Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I attended the spring meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, 13 and 14 March, accompanied by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern. This year's spring European Council meeting marked a critical juncture in the evolution of the European Union. Our agenda clearly showed the need for the Union to be able to act effectively on the international stage. I am pleased to report that our discussions demonstrated the Union's commitment to lead on global issues.

The Union has a major leadership role to play on the major global challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, and to ensure that we do so for the betterment of our citizens and the wider world. Managing economic growth and creating jobs, tackling climate change, ensuring food and energy security and maintaining stable financial markets are complex and interwoven issues. To respond successfully to these challenges requires the Union to act in a cohesive, efficient and effective way.

The importance of these issues to Europe and to the world shows exactly why we have, and why we need, the European Union. A more effective Europe is good for Ireland, for Europe and for the world. This is why the Lisbon reform treaty is so important.

Our discussions at the spring Council meeting began with an address by the President of the European Parliament, Professor Hans-Gert Pöttering, and a valuable exchange of views with him on the key items on the Council's agenda. He also emphasised the importance of the Lisbon treaty. I am delighted that President Pöttering was able to visit us here this week, demonstrating once again that links with the European Parliament are both important and real. I met with him on Monday last and I also very much appreciated his address to the Seanad yesterday morning.

The first working session of the European Council was devoted to the Lisbon strategy for jobs and growth and with a particular focus on energy and climate change. At the outset of our discussion, President Barroso of the European Commission outlined his views on the new three-year cycle of the Lisbon strategy and on the Commission's package of proposals on climate change and energy security. The Lisbon strategy's new three-year cycle will build on the progress already made over the period 2005-08. I welcome the fact that there is continuity, with the integrated guidelines agreed in 2005 being maintained. Furthermore, the new cycle reaffirms the key priority areas agreed in 2006. These include investing in people and modernising labour markets; unlocking business potential, especially within SMEs; investing in knowledge and innovation; and energy and climate change. All of these are fully in line with our own priorities and objectives set out in the programme for government and Towards 2016. They are also consistent with the institutional and investment frameworks that we have put in place, including the national development plan.

The Council fully recognises that challenges remain. We cannot afford to be complacent, particularly in the current global economic climate. Our ability to meet these challenges depends on maintaining the modernisation and reform momentum that the Lisbon strategy is providing and will continue to provide over the next three years.

The Council also discussed the recent turmoil in the financial markets. Europe has not been impacted to the same degree as financial institutions in the United States. Nonetheless, we agreed that there is no room for complacency. The Council's conclusions reflect a shared view on the need for the Union's financial stability framework to be more robust, more transparent, with better valuation standards, and improved levels of communication and co-operation between regulators.

While the WTO was not a formal item on our agenda, I took the opportunity to emphasise to my colleagues that we had to avoid signing up to an unbalanced deal that unnecessarily damaged EU-wide food production. In the main, our discussions were dominated by energy and climate change. Secretary General and High Representative Javier Solana presented a report on the security implications of climate change that he had prepared jointly with the European Commission. He highlighted the potential security issues, but also the humanitarian implications and the very real threats to already vulnerable and conflict prone states.

The overall message of his report is clear: the impact of climate change on international security is not a future concern, it is a reality today. The EU has a vital international leadership role to play but it cannot succeed on its own. All global players must participate, both developed countries and some of the more advanced developing countries. The issues are complex and interlinked and have implications for the EU and its relations with the rest of the world.

At the 2007 spring Council, we agreed ambitious but achievable targets on energy and climate change. Ireland supported the goals and principles, including commitment to a 20% reduction in CO2emissions by 2020, and support for a 30% target, as part of a comprehensive international agreement. Given the importance and context of the Bali roadmap agreed last December, we proposed that the negotiations on the Commission's recent package should be advanced during 2008 in order that the Union maintains its global leadership on this issue.

We now have a credible framework for those negotiations. The Council agreed that, over the coming months, we will work out the detail of how we will do this in a way that is clear and demonstrably fair and allows sufficient flexibility. I underlined Ireland's commitment to playing its full part in Europe's response to climate change. The Commission's package will be very challenging for Ireland and implementing the level of emission reductions required has serious economic and social implications, but there will be opportunities for us as well and we must be prepared to seek these out.

The Council is very aware of that, in setting a course towards a low-carbon economy, one of the key challenges is to do so in a way that is consistent with other EU priority policies, in particular, sustainable development, food security and economic and social cohesion. In addition, account must be taken of particular concerns such as carbon leakage in various sectors, including agriculture. I am satisfied that the conclusions take account of these issues.

We also discussed the issue of energy, including external energy security. Clearly, it is in the Union's interests to create a stable, secure and predictable environment for investors in energy production and transmission. An effective, interconnected internal energy market will help with security of supply, improve competition which will impact on electricity prices and facilitate an increased contribution by renewables. In my intervention, I emphasised the need to support coherent research and development and innovation policies. The Union needs to accelerate the development and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies. I underlined the potential opportunities that the renewable sector can provide in creating jobs and growth, not least in rural areas.

At the dinner of the Heads of State and Government, President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel presented their outline for a union of the Mediterranean, which was approved. We agreed that the European Commission should bring forward more detailed proposals in due course.

To conclude, this year's spring meeting of the European Council was successful with significant outcomes. We agreed that we should build on the progress made to date on the Lisbon strategy and continue to focus on jobs and growth, including in the social dimensions. The Council recognised fully that, in transforming to a low carbon economy, we must ensure coherence between interlinked policy objectives, including sustainability, food and energy security and economic and social cohesion. We are fully committed to the European Union leading globally on climate change and to working towards an international agreement on a shared global response. Having set ambitious climate change targets last year, we have now agreed a credible basis for working out how they are to be achieved in a way that is demonstrably fair, efficient, clear and sufficiently flexible.

The European Council was also a success in that it demonstrated that member states can work together constructively to share the challenge and opportunities ahead for the betterment of all our citizens. I believe strongly that the European institutions should be closer to the citizen. The Council shows the relevance of the European Union and underlines the importance to all of us that we have a union that is better connected to its citizens and better able to lead on the broader international stage.

I would like to conclude by mentioning that, during the summit, Chancellor Merkel and President Barroso told me that they were looking forward to their visits here next week. Chancellor Merkel will make a bilateral visit on Monday next when she and I will have discussions on the EU agenda. The Chancellor will also address the National Forum on Europe. President Barroso will visit Ireland on 17 and 18 April. His extensive programme will cover Dublin and Cork. In addition to bilateral meetings, he will have a number of speaking engagements, including the National Forum on Europe and University College Cork. I should mention that President Ilves of Estonia will also make a state visit to Ireland. I very much welcome this and am looking forward to his visit.

The number and stature of our European visitors this and next week is testament to our sharing in Europe and our standing as a country in Europe. It is an honour for me to welcome to our shores the presidents of both the Commission and the European Parliament and leading representatives of member states, new and old, large and small. These visits illustrate the growing interconnections between all of our countries so neatly evidenced by the discussions at the spring European Council, on which I have just reported. In conclusion, it is a good time to be Irish and it is a great time to be an Irish European.

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