Ireland close to being the success story EU needs it to be: Creighton
She made the comments on a whistle-stop visit to Warsaw to hold talks with her Polish counterpart, Piotr Serafin.
Later, Ms Creighton spoke at one of Poland’s leading political think-tanks, PISM (Polish Institute of International Affairs), and outlined the Government’s priorities for Ireland’s upcoming six-month EU presidency.
She emphasised that Ireland was on the road to economic recovery. “Ireland is close to being the success story that the EU needs it to be,” Ms Creighton said.
She indicated that the single market would be Ireland’s priority, with particular emphasis on creating jobs and growth
Ms Creighton insisted the presidency would be “prudent” and not as costly as that in 2004, which cost the taxpayer close to €95m. A €60m bill is envisaged, she said. This is about the same as Cyprus is spending on the current presidency, but well above the €35m spent by Denmark in the first half of the year.
She said: “It won’t be bells and whistles, high-profile salubrious venues that might have been seen in the past.”
Ms Creighton said the presidency “will focus on the EU-US trade relationship”. She hoped a series of meetings between EU trade ministers would pave the way forward for the start of talks on a “comprehensive EU-US free trade agreement”.
Ms Creighton was positive when asked about last week’s joint communiqué by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which had described Ireland as “a special case”.
“It’s a process of negotiation but we will find an arrangement that is acceptable to Germany and to Ireland, and other member states so that we can get back to the markets next year.”
The Government will publish its programme for the presidency of the Council of the EU in December.
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