‘We must get over treaty impasse’

EUROPE must overcome the impasse over a new treaty to allow it to compete with emerging global economies, Turlough O’Sullivan of IBEC told the French president yesterday.

Mr O’Sullivan stressed the Irish business community’s continued support for the EU and said: “Our future economic success rests on playing a positive role at the centre of an outward-looking EU.”

During the meeting in the French embassy he said: “The challenge for both Irish and EU politicians is to find a means of honestly addressing Irish worries, be they directly or indirectly linked to the specific text of the Lisbon treaty, while at the same time not undermining the cohesiveness of the union as a whole.”