Ireland must defend small EU nations

ANYONE looking to the Taoiseach to open Ireland’s EU presidency by confronting Romano Prodi over his controversial two-tier Europe remark will be sorely disappointed as Mr Ahern was clearly outpunched by the head of the Brussels commission yesterday.

Not only did the Italian official stick to his guns, he threw more petrol on the flames, bluntly warning that some European countries will go it alone despite opposition to giving bigger nations greater voting rights in the European Council.

Denying that he was undermining Ireland’s position, he claimed “Europe can’t move at the speed of the slowest wagon”.