Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I attended the meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday, 15 and 16 October. I was accompanied at the meeting by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Micheál Martin, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, and by the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Dick Roche.

The Council took place against the context of the international financial crisis, and the agreement reached the previous Sunday by eurozone members. The Treaty of Lisbon and the climate change negotiations also featured prominently and have been well covered in the media. Progress was also made on other important issues, notably on improving co-ordination on immigration.

As the House will recall, I undertook at the June meeting of the Council to give a progress report at this October Council on our efforts to address the situation which faces us following the rejection by the public of the proposal to amend our Constitution to ratify the Lisbon treaty last June.

We are fully committed to finding a solution which both addresses the concerns of the Irish public and which is, of course, acceptable to our partners within the Union. I want to take this opportunity also to welcome the establishment of the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Ireland's Future in the European Union and to wish it well in its important work.

I believe it appropriate to relay to the House the key points of my report to my European Council colleagues. I began by remarking that few, if any, of us could have envisaged how the world in which we live has been transformed in a number of fundamental respects in a few short months.

The global economy has faced into a serious downturn and the foundations of the international financial system, on which our collective prosperity and development depend, have been shaken to their core. In August, conflict between Russia and Georgia reminded us that the peace and security we enjoy is neither inevitable nor to be taken for granted. I paid tribute to the French Presidency for its handling of these crises.

I recalled for my colleagues my clear view that Ireland's prospects are absolutely interwoven with our membership of and full participation in the European Union.

I stressed, as I have done on other occasions, that recent events had underlined the critical value of our membership of the Union and the eurozone, and the access we enjoy to the support of the European Central Bank. I acknowledged, too, that we best advance our interests by acting in concert with like-minded other states on problems, challenges and opportunities that can only be responded to effectively by working across national boundaries.

I said that Ireland could not expect our partners to accommodate our traditions and priorities without our demonstrating a reciprocal approach. I stressed that we must accept that pooling sovereignty with others is not the same as giving it away.

I then went on to explain the main elements of what we have been doing in Ireland following the referendum result. I recalled President Sarkozy's visit to Dublin in July, when he met not only with me and some of my Government colleagues but also with Opposition leaders and representatives of civil society in order to familiarise himself with the views on all sides of our national argument about the Lisbon treaty.

An event such as our referendum vote requires time to be understood, for its significance to be absorbed and for the basis for moving forward to emerge. I explained that this is where we stand at the moment.

Four months on from the referendum was too early to be prescriptive about outcomes. Our domestic political debate was taking its course but I emphasised that it still has a way to go.

I explained that we have established a parliamentary committee on Ireland's future in the Union to examine the issues that arose during the campaign, including the concerns highlighted by the survey and how they sit in the broader context of our European Union membership.

I reported on the independent study we commissioned into the reasons people voted, or abstained from voting, and touched on the main findings of the report with which many of my colleagues were already largely familiar.

Before briefing them on the issues that had come most prominently to light in terms of the concerns which underpinned the Irish people's vote on 12 June, I stressed again that the survey results clearly showed our people want Ireland to continue to be fully involved in the Union. I underlined that the vote must not be described as an expression of an anti-EU sentiment.

I acknowledged that many voters with positive attitudes towards the Union decided to vote against the Lisbon treaty. Many people voted "No" or abstained because of a lack of knowledge or understanding of the treaty — a lack of knowledge which applies not only to the Lisbon treaty but more generally to the European Union and how it functions. I said that other partners shared this problem.

I referred to the sense of disconnect from, and perceived loss of influence in, the European Union, something that concerns not just Ireland. A Union where too many members of the public feel detached or disconnected is not as it should be. I underlined the need for a concerted response across the Union to these problems.

While careful not to prejudge the outcome of the work of the Oireachtas sub-committee, I felt it was appropriate to give my own assessment of the issues that were of most concern during the referendum campaign. I listed a number — both general and specific — which gave rise to very real concerns in the minds of our electorate. I stressed that it would be wrong to dismiss the anxieties surrounding them. They were genuinely felt and must be examined, understood and addressed.

They included the future composition of the Commission; issues related to defence and our tradition of neutrality; social or ethical issues; and taxation. I stressed that the concerns that surfaced during our referendum campaign would need to be adequately addressed if we are to find an acceptable way forward.

I believe that point is recognised by our partners within the Union, that is to say, they too see that the concerns of the Irish voters need to be addressed but while I believe they will work with us to seek a satisfactory way forward, the other member states are clear that they want the package of reforms in the Lisbon treaty to come into effect. Our task in the period ahead will be to work out how to address our concerns in a way which can be endorsed by all 27 member states.

That will not be easy. However, I believe it is strongly in our interest, especially in the current global economic and financial uncertainty, to find a solution. Pressure from our partners to come up with such a solution can be expected to intensify if, as seems reasonably likely in due course, we find ourselves alone in not having ratified the treaty.

Many member states have drawn our attention to important milestones in the course of 2009 relating to the Parliament and the Commission. I acknowledged their importance and committed myself to continuing to work with our partners to overcome the uncertainty that exists.

I said that by December I would aim to have identified the necessary steps that need to be taken, and expressed the hope that December's Council might see us defining together the elements of a solution and a common path to follow.

Finally, I committed the Government to working closely with the Presidency, the member states and the Union's institutions in the period leading up to the next European Council.

My colleagues took note of my report and analysis of the position. The agreed conclusions of the meeting accurately reflect the position and record that the Government will continue its work to resolve the situation. The European Council in December will return to the matter with a view to defining the elements of a solution and a common path to be followed.

Moving on from the Lisbon treaty, much of the Council and indeed the discussions in the corridors related to the international financial crisis we are currently going through. The meeting built on the agreed measures for a co-ordinated response which were developed and agreed the previous Sunday at a meeting of the heads of eurozone governments in Paris. That eurozone response was endorsed by the European Council.

Europe is leading the global response to this crisis, and the Council made clear that Europe will be a key player in seeking to re-shape the financial regulatory model to make sure that what we are witnessing at the moment is not repeated. Ireland will be an active and constructive participant in that effort.

There was agreement at the Council that national supervisory systems will have to work even more closely with one another than they have heretofore. On a very practical note, the Council also put in place measures to ensure that information flows and co-ordination are much better than they have been.

I wish to mention to the House at this point that the Presidency has indicated that it intends to call an extraordinary meeting of the European Union Heads of State and Government for Friday, 7 November to discuss the financial situation ahead of the international conference the following week to be hosted by President Bush.

The Council also discussed the energy and climate change package. The negotiations on that front are continuing and we hope to reach agreement on the package in December. There is much work to be done to ensure the system is as efficient as possible. Member states are concerned at the potential impact on their economies.

While it may not currently dominate the news given all that is happening on the economic and financial front, the threat of climate change does not recede because it recedes from the front pages. Europe must continue to show leadership in this area if an effective global deal is to be reached next year in Copenhagen.

On the related subject of energy security, the Council agreed to step up work on various fronts including interconnection and improving the way we work with supplier and transit countries.

On migration, the Council formally adopted the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum which had been developed by justice Ministers. The pact is designed to bring greater consistency, and therefore greater effectiveness and fairness, to the way we apply our immigration and asylum policies.

It was an important European Council at an important moment for the European Union. As usual, there were differences of view between member states who share broad goals and, as usual in the Union, we found ways of resolving these differences through give and take.

It is worth noting that the work of the October European Council captures neatly why we need the European Union. It makes us much stronger on all fronts — dealing with the financial crisis, for example, climate change, energy suppliers or immigration. None of those challenges can be responded to alone. Ireland must work effectively within the Union if our responses to these challenges are to be effective, and if our views are to be influential.

Not surprisingly, our partners remain very anxious to know what we propose to do regarding the Lisbon treaty. We have said all along that a "No" vote on 12 June was not a vote without consequences. Our partners are convinced that the reforms in the Lisbon treaty are necessary for Europe to function effectively, and have invested much time and effort to that end. For many, the Georgia situation, and indeed the financial crisis itself, have heightened their anxiety to see the reforms implemented, and confirmed their view that they are necessary.

For Ireland, recent events underline how crucial our EU membership is to us. As a small country we have always managed to ensure that our concerns were taken on board by participating actively and by showing solidarity and playing our full part in working towards shared goals. That approach is the one that has served us well and will continue to serve our interests; it should guide us also in the coming period.

In the lead-up to the December meeting of the Council I will be working towards defining the elements of a solution and an agreed way forward. At the same time, the House, through the Sub-Committee on Ireland's Future in the European Union, should ensure the issues and consequences arising for Ireland are teased out publicly and thoroughly. The sub-committee's work is an important part of the national debate and I look forward to its report in late November.

We have to a degree started to articulate the public concerns relating to the Lisbon treaty which require to be addressed. In time we will explore, in conjunction with our partners, how best to proceed in that regard. Times of crisis sometimes make more stark the reality that our future is bound with that of the European Union. It is in our national interest to play a full role within it, working with others to advance our interests and pursue our goals and have our positions heard, understood and taken on board.

We must find a way forward. The Government is fully focused on finding a way which addresses the concerns of the public and which is realistic, focused and acceptable to our partners in the European Union. I look forward to continuing to work with Members on that matter.

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