Ierland stelt prioriteiten EU-beleid vast (en)

EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - Ireland, which takes over the EU helm January next year, will "attempt to be an effective and impartial arbiter", acting in the interest of the European Union as a whole, Irish President Mary McAleese told MEPs this morning.

In a speech, partly given in Irish, Ms McAleese said that Ireland's Presidency will be taking place at a time of deep global insecurity, where war, terrorism and organised crime "are vying for places on the international agenda" alongside trade and global relations.

Therefore, she said that external relations will be another key aspect of the Irish Presidency, mentioning that Ireland's own particular history makes it an especially "effective bridge to the United States, home to so many Irish emigrants".

Whilst expressing strong support for the current Italian Presidency on their aim of concluding the Intergovernmental Conference by next month, she nevertheless said that "a number of questions remain to be fully debated and finally resolved".

One of them is the controversial issue of a reference to God in the preamble of the new EU constitution, which Ireland supports.

"The Irish Government has indicated that it would welcome such an inclusion if consensus can be reached on suitable language", she said.

She also said that a "key task" during Ireland's tenure will be to advance the Lisbon agenda, which aims at making the EU the most competitive and knowledge based economy by 2010, but which is currently stalling.

"That strategy was agreed at a time of rapid economic growth across Europe ... but these are much less buoyant times, made all more challenging by enlargement", the Irish President said, adding that "if we are to achieve our targets we need to increase the pace of reform".

The Irish Presidency will also see the formal accession of ten countries to the EU next May and the continuation of accession negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania with a view to the 2007 target date for their EU accession.

Developments in Turkey will also be monitored closely in advance of a decision to be taken in December 2004 on whether accession negotiations with Turkey could start.

But she also said that the enlarged EU needs to seize an important challenge, that of addressing the needs of the developing world.

Although the EU is the global leader in the provision of developing assistance, she said that the overall level of this assistance from the rich countries has "dropped to an unacceptably low level".

"Perhaps this is the new gauntlet that should be thrown down to the twenty five Member States of the enlarged Union", she said.