Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 99: To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a secret meeting was held in Luxembourg on Friday, 6 May 2011 of the larger countries of the European Union with the European Central Bank and the European Commission. [11690/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am aware that a meeting of the Euro area member states who are also members of the G20 group took place in Luxembourg on Friday, 6 May 2011. This meeting was not notified in advance to Eurozone members who are not members of G20. The following statement, which was issued after the meeting by the President of the Eurogroup, Mr. Juncker, explains its purpose. "In the follow-up of the Annual meeting in Washington in April, Minister Lagarde, in the function of French Presidency of the G20, and Prime Minister Juncker, as President of the Eurogroup, had decided to convene the Euro Area Ministers of the G20 to an informal meeting to discuss a number of G20 matters. The meeting took place today 6 May in Luxembourg in the late afternoon.

As Greece had been the subject of extensive discussions in Washington, Prime Minister Juncker decided to also invite the Greek Minister of Finance, Mr. Papaconstantinou, to join the other Ministers for a brief exchange on the current situation."