Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The special meeting was called by the President of the European Council to discuss specific issues. More meetings of the European Council are taking place as a result of the Lisbon treaty, but not all of these have the full agenda of a normal Council meeting, of which there were traditionally two per year - one in the summer and one in December - plus another in the spring to deal with the goals under the Lisbon agenda, as it was called at the time, of making the European economy more competitive. We are now trying to come up with strategic goals for the European economy, and a means of achieving them, between now and 2020. This is a far more limited set of objectives, perhaps, than the various performance indicators under the Lisbon agenda. At that time the meetings had become something of a box-ticking exercise rather than incorporating a strategic approach to improving the European economy generally. That is the lesson that was learned from that process.

The meeting of 16 September was about the strategic relationships we need to foster - for example, with China, India, Brazil and the United States. Mr. Van Rompuy also briefed the Council on the progress being made by the task force on economic governance, which he is chairing, including the changes being contemplated to improve oversight and surveillance by the euro group of the budget policies of member states.

The Deputy's second point relates to the influence of the markets. In the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis, sovereign debt is an issue that is now in play in a way that would not have been the case during the time of prolonged world economic growth since the 1990s. Due to the impact this has had on the infrastructure of the international financial system, all debt, including sovereign debt and the ability of sovereigns to repay their debt, is being taken into account through the cost of borrowing that states have to endure from those institutions that provide the money to fund deficits. This is happening due to the impact of the recession and the need to fund those deficits in a planned way over time, so that they can be reduced and we can get back to a budgetary balance.

This situation is affecting all countries in the western world at the moment.

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