Dublin World Economic Forum summit cancelled

A high profile World Economic Forum (WEF) summit planned for Dublin and involving major European leaders has been postponed and is not going to be held in the Republic, it was announced yesterday.

The World Economic Forum said in a statement that it had decided to postpone its European Economic Summit, scheduled to be held in Dublin Castle next October, until early in 2004.

The forum was due to discuss European competitiveness, but it said in a statement yesterday that its next global competitiveness review would not be published until November.

A spokesman pointed out that the discussion would be based on the report's findings.

As a result, the WEF said it would be holding the summit on competitiveness at its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

Tánaiste Ms Harney expressed regret at the WEF decision yesterday.

In a statement, she said the Government would have been willing to host the summit and was disappointed that it would not be going ahead. "The Dublin summit would have presented an ideal opportunity to discuss important issues concerning competitiveness in Europe," Ms Harney said.

"I hope that the WEF will continue with a special focus on competitiveness during the Davos summit in January next year."

A spokesman for Dublin Chamber of Commerce said the decision was a missed opportunity to showcase the city. "Any meetings that attract worldwide coverage help to promote Dublin," he said.

The WEF spokesman dismissed claims that fears about security had forced the organisation to abandon the Dublin summit.

"Absolutely not, security just wasn't an issue," he said.

"We are continuing to run all of our regional programmes as planned. In any case, if security was an issue, then we would have regarded Dublin as one of the better venues."

Earlier, Mr Joe Carroll from a group called Globalise Resistance claimed that the WEF had been driven out of Dublin by mounting public pressure, and the fact that "thousands of anti-capitalists had planned to stage blockades and a massive march against the organisation".

The Green Party said last night it welcomed the WEF's decision. Finance spokesman,

Mr Dan Boyle TD, said there would have been considerable public opposition to the summit.

"Garda resources would have been unnecessarily used to ensure the safety of legitimate protesters that such a forum would undoubtedly attract," he said.

The Garda press office said it was not aware of the planned World Economic Forum summit.

"It would only have been an issue for us if there had been some question of protecting persons and property and keeping the peace," a Garda spokeswoman said.