Polish leader backs Taoiseach for position of EU president

POLAND became the first country yesterday to publicly give its support to the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for the post of EU president.

Mr Ahern has been coy about his ambition for the job that would become available once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, saying on the one hand he had not thought about it and, on the other, that he would not need to make a decision on it until it arose.

But when Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was asked if he would support Mr Ahern for the job if he wanted it, the reply was positive. “For Poland and the Poles, and for my part, if the Taoiseach of Ireland had such an idea and intention the approach of the poles would be most obviously and certainly favourable,” he said.

The meeting in Warsaw further cemented close ties between the two countries as the recently elected Mr Tusk said he hoped that Poland could emulate Ireland in its rapid economic growth. “I hope at the end of my term it will be the Irish prime minister who will be jealous of our Irish tax system,” he said.

Corporation tax at 19% is considerably higher than Ireland’s 12.5% but Mr Tusk plans to introduce a flat tax rate and also reduce income tax to 19%.

Mr Ahern talked of the contribution Polish migrants were making to Ireland and were now the largest non-national group living in the country.

Mr Tusk presented him with a hurley made in Poland, where close to a third of all the sticks used in Ireland are now manufactured.

The unequivocal support for Mr Ahern for the job of EU president that will become available next year was in contrast to the response from the Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer who sidestepped the issue and said any decisions should be delayed until after the European Parliament elections in June 2009.

“It would not be a good exercise to decide prior to the European elections,” he said, adding the new composition of MEPs should be involved in the negotiations on who the leader of the EU should be.

The Taoiseach said Ireland was part of the growing number of countries with a similar view. However, this might not suit any ambitions he might have for the job as Fianna Fáil is not part of either of the larger groups in the parliament — the Christian Democrat EPP or the Socialists and they normally divide up the jobs among their members.

The current favourite for the post is Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair, but despite French President Nicolas Sarkozy saying that he would support him, France and several other countries are expected to oppose the move.