Walsh receives award from king of Spain
Spain’s Ambassador to Ireland Enrique Pastor de Gana formally presented the insignia of the Grand Cross of the Agricultural Order of Merit to the minister at a ceremony in Dublin.
The Grand Cross, created by Royal Decree in 1905, is the highest level of the Agriculture Order of Merit that can be granted by Spain.
No more than three or four awards of this nature are made in the course of a year and only in exceptional circumstances to people outside Spain.
Other recipients have included the DG of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf (1996), Ignaz Kiechle, German Minister for Food (1993), and Jean Glavany, former French Minister for Agriculture (2001).
Mr Walsh, now the longest serving member of the EU’s Council of Agricultural Ministers, said he was deeply honoured to be the recipient, by decree of King Juan Carlos, of Spain’s Agricultural Order of Merit.
“I am conscious that this award is a rare one, even in Spain. I therefore greatly appreciate the distinction which King Juan Carlos has bestowed on me,” he said.
Mr Walsh said the award is, in a sense, a measure of the high level of co-operation over the years between Spain and Ireland in the EU Council of Ministers on behalf of agriculture in both countries.
“This co-operation has been deeply gratifying to me professionally and personally. It is based not just on a large area of common interest between our two countries but also on personal friendship between Spanish and Irish Ministers for Agriculture.
“I value greatly the level of co-operation and friendship which I have had with my Spanish counterparts and, in particular, with the present Spanish minister, Miguel Arias Canete,” he said.
Mr Walsh, speaking at the presentation ceremony in the Spanish Embassy, said next year the great European project will embrace 25 member states.
Spain and Ireland look forward to the realisation of the potential which the enlarged union will bring.
This will include the potential for peace and stability, prosperity through increased trade and investment and social and cultural enrichment though the interaction of the diversity of 25 nations.
“The future of Europe is an exciting one. It is one to which Spain and Ireland will contribute with what we have in common and what we have separately.
“I look forward to that future and to further and deeper co-operation with our Spanish friends in shaping it,” he said.
Mr Walsh said he would treasure the insignia of the award as symbols of co-operation and friendship, past and future, with his Spanish colleagues.
Spain is the second EU member state to honour Mr Walsh. He was awarded the Legion d’Honneur by France last year, on the nomination of President Jacques Chirac.
