A FORMER Irish diplomat and senior EU Commission official, Mr Eamonn Gallagher, has been asked by the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, to help break an EU deadlock over the funding of major infrastructure projects, writes Patrick Smyth.
The funding of the Trans European Networks (TENs) has become a prolonged trial of strength between the German Finance Minister, Mr Theo Waigel, and the Commission President, Mr Jacques Santer. Mr Santer has seen the cash to launch 14 priority projects in transport, energy and communications as a key element in his "Confidence Pact for Jobs".
He wants the member states to find some £800 million for the projects which he says will free up far larger loans from the European Investment Bank and provide an important stimulus to employment.
Mr Waigel, backed by the French and the British, says that the money is better spent at home by member states, and that the fiscal restraint which they are being asked to pursue to meet the Maastricht convergence criteria should be matched at EU level.
There had been hopes that the issue would be resolved by some creative accounting at the Florence summit but the leaders kicked the ball back to finance ministers who passed it on only last week to a "high level" group of their personal representatives chaired by Mr Gallagher.
Mr Gallagher (70) is a well seasoned veteran of difficult EU negotiations, having presided over such thorny issues as the creation of the Common Fisheries Policy and the fisheries element of the accession of Spain and Portugal to the Union, as then director general of fisheries in the Commission. Later, he served as head of the EU mission to the UN.