‘EU will go on despite hiccup’, Ahern says

THE EU will not slide into a steady and irreconcilable decline as a result of last week’s divisive summit collapse, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern predicted yesterday.

Although he described some of the scenes at last week’s fractious meeting as ridiculous, Mr Ahern said EU budget plans could easily be put on hold for the moment.

However, he acknowledged that the attempt to negotiate an EU budget had descended into farce whereby new accession members such as Poland were willing to give up money to mollify the richer members’ demands. “At that stage, it went pretty ridiculous to be honest. As one speaker said, ‘this is pathetic’. Here we are with some of the poorest countries in the EU willing to give up money, if it’s only a matter of money, but even then that was rebuffed,” he said.