Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The important meeting of the European Council that will take place on Thursday and Friday of this week will have a full and significant agenda. The main item for discussion will be economic policy. The matters to be examined include the contents of a compact for growth and jobs and President Van Rompuy's report on how to strengthen economic and monetary union. We will also discuss the future budget for the Union - the multi-annual financial framework. Under the heading of enlargement, we will consider the question of the opening of negotiations with Montenegro. We will address a number of matters in the Justice and Home Affairs area. We will welcome the work that has been done on nuclear stress tests on foot of the request we made in December 2011. We will also discuss foreign policy matters, including the situation in Syria.

The House will be aware that the European Council has met with increasing frequency since the economic crisis in Europe started. During all of these meetings, we have sought to move Europe beyond crisis and into a phase of stabilisation, recovery and growth. Our approach has not always been as balanced, ambitious or sure-footed as it should have been. The crisis has continued. It is clear, including from recent events, that we have yet to convince the markets that Europe is a stable and safe place in which to invest. As a Union, our growth prospects remain low. Too many of our people, especially young people, are without jobs. As I have said previously, recent meetings of the European Council, especially those in January and March and at the end of May, have been much more firmly focused on how we can put in place concrete measures to engineer recovery, generate growth and support job creation. That will be the focus of our work again later this week. I will look for progress to be made on all fronts. I will seek concrete steps to help us to stabilise the current situation; to get investment flowing in the real economy and thereby encourage growth and jobs; to prioritise policies, including in the Single Market and on trade, that have real growth potential in the short and medium terms; and to lay the groundwork for a more stable and deeper economic and monetary union.

Our discussions on economic matters will centre around three elements: the conclusions we will adopt, the compact on growth and jobs, and the report we will receive from President Van Rompuy on the building blocks needed to strengthen economic union. The European Council will take the final formal step in this year's European semester in endorsing the country-specific recommendations addressed to each member state. These will be reflected in upcoming decisions on budgets, structural reforms and employment policies. As a country that is receiving financial assistance, the recommendation to Ireland is that we should continue to implement the terms of our EU-IMF programme as we have been doing to date. Importantly, the meeting will adopt a compact for growth and jobs. This is a welcome departure. As the House will be aware, the Government has long argued that such a pact is urgently needed not just in its own terms, but also as a vitally important balance to the fiscal pact we adopted through the new treaty. Just as we need reform and discipline, we also need an equally firm focus on growth and job creation.

The compact contains measures that have the capacity to make a meaningful impact over the short and medium terms. Most immediately, it proposes initiatives with the potential to deliver a boost to growth by injecting increased investment into the real economy. It proposes an increase of €10 billion in the European Investment Bank's capital, an amount that can be converted with leverage into an additional €60 billion in lending, thereby supporting an additional €180 billion in investment. The compact also urges that we press forward with the pilot phase of project bonds, focus Structural Fund spending on growth-oriented projects, and bring the European Investment Fund into play. All of these steps will make a positive difference, but they will not achieve the real results we are looking for if they are not fully accessible to countries where investment is most urgently needed. Therefore, I will continue to make the case for the maximum flexibility and creativity so investment can be targeted where it should be. I welcome the recognition in the draft text that the European Investment Bank's increased lending should be "spread across the whole European Union, including in the most vulnerable countries".

The compact also calls for deepening of the Single Market, particularly in digital and network industries. As the House is aware, the Commission is advancing work on the first 12 measures under the Single Market Act. It will bring forward its proposals for the next phase in the autumn. This will be a key input into the work of our Presidency in the first half of next year. I have said many times that the digital agenda is particularly promising. I expect that next week's meeting will call for swift progress on measures aimed at further developing online trade, including e-invoicing, e-identification and other electronic services. We will also note the crucial importance of rolling out high-speed Internet, modernising Europe's copyright regime and facilitating licensing. I hope it will be possible to reach final agreement on the patent, a file that has been open for so long it has become a symbol of Europe's capacity to act.

The compact highlights trade as an important driver of growth. In particular, it calls for efforts to be geared towards the removal of trade barriers, the facilitation of better market access, the creation of appropriate investment conditions, the protection of intellectual property and the opening up of public procurement markets. As an open trading economy, Ireland welcomes this focus. A priority will be concluding work on free trade agreements with Singapore and Canada by the end of the year, with negotiations with India to be given a new momentum. The compact calls for a deepening of the EU's trade relations with Japan and looks forward to the possible launch of negotiations on a comprehensive trade and investment agreement in 2013. This is something we will be working towards energetically. The compact also refers to the potential of tax policy to make a contribution to fiscal consolidation and growth. While I firmly support efforts at European level to improve the fight against tax fraud and evasion - I look forward to the Commission's action plan in this regard - the Government's position on CCCTB is very well known and will not be changing. I know I have the support of the House on that.

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