Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Government came into office with an explicit commitment to restore Ireland's standing as a respected and influential member of the European Union. Members of the Government are availing of opportunities to meet their EU colleagues, as well as representatives of the European institutions, to underline the Government's constructive engagement with the European agenda and to ensure close working relationships at political level across the Union.

Since taking office six months ago, I have attended a number of EU ministerial meetings and at this stage have had the opportunity to exchange views on the key issues on the EU agenda with all my EU colleagues. These contacts are critical in conveying and ensuring a good understanding of our objectives and interests and of positions we are taking on EU and international issues.

I have had, on the one hand, formal bilateral meetings with a number of counterparts and on the other, a wide range of informal discussions in a variety of fora. In April, for example, I met with my counterparts from Luxembourg and Finland on the margins of the General Affairs Council meeting of 13 April.

In May, I met the United Kingdom's Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, William Hague, in London. During the Queen's visit to Ireland, I had the opportunity of further meetings with Foreign Secretary Hague. I also in May had a detailed exchange of views with the French Foreign Minister, Alain Juppé. Our discussion focused on issues on the international agenda, including the Middle East peace process and the events of the Arab spring, as well as economic issues.

In July, I met the German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, for bilateral consultations in Berlin. The focus of our discussion was on economic issues and we also addressed international issues including the Middle East and the Arab spring. I have also had extensive bilateral contact with my Lithuanian colleague, Audronius Azubalis, and with the Lithuanian Prime Minister, Andrius Kubilius, on issues related to Ireland's forthcoming chairmanship of the OSCE, as well as the EU Presidency responsibilities which we both will assume in 2013.

Last week, I had bilateral discussions with individual EU counterparts at a number of events we attended together on the margins of the UN General Assembly opening week in New York. These events included the ministerial breakfast on mediation on 20 September, which also was attended by the Finnish, Belgian and Swedish Foreign Ministers, the high level meeting on Libya and the traditional EU-Russia and EU-US meetings.

The Minister of State, Deputy Creighton, has also had a substantial number of bilateral meetings at EU level, including with the secretaries general of the Commission and the Council and the President of the European Parliament, as well as with British, French, German, Polish, Bulgarian, Slovak and Greek counterparts.

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