Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The European Union is attempting to avoid a reactive situation. It is true that the EU found itself in a position where it had to react to the nature of the crisis in Greece, the difficulty in Ireland and more recently in Portugal. The idea of establishing a European stability mechanism for the eurozone is so that there will be, post-2013, a permanent mechanism to deal with circumstances where countries find themselves in difficulty. The measures and the issues discussed and considered at the European Council meeting are intended to provide a framework to address economic crises as they emerge and to ensure we work to avoid them happening in the future.

Regarding the issue of leadership, it is important that we consider ourselves part of that leadership. The EU is intended to operate on the basis of solidarity and co-operation between member states. Instead of looking to leadership from individual member states, we must examine the way in which the 27 member states acting as a whole provide leadership collectively. It is valuable to have a framework in place to enable crises to be addressed in a manner not entirely reactive and to have a framework about moving the European economy out of the economic difficulties at present.

See this speech in context