Kenny calls for greater cohesion in EU

TAOISEACH'S ADDRESS:EUROPE HAS to deploy "overwhelming financial firepower" in support of those euro zone countries pursuing and implementing sustainable economic policies, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said yesterday.

He said the member states of the European Union needed to work with a greater sense of cohesion when confronting the euro crisis.

The larger member states of the European Union had always worked with the smaller states in the context of achieving political aims such as the Lisbon and Nice treaties, Mr Kenny said.

However, the same sense of cohesion did not exist when it came to the economic crisis and the stability of the euro zone.

“That’s what European leaders need to focus on,” he told a lunch in Dublin hosted by the Institute of Directors.

There was a need for comprehensive discussions from a political perspective on how greater cohesion could be brought about, though there were obvious difficulties, he said.

Mr Kenny said he intended to travel to France and Germany to talk to political leaders there before future European meetings, to “give them a picture as to where we are”.

The ongoing market turbulence remained a great concern to Ireland and had the potential to derail its economic recovery. “That is why we are working with our economic partners to seek solutions that will improve the way the euro zone works as a whole.”

While the international situation remained unpredictable, there were significant reasons to be optimistic about Ireland’s prospects, he said. The Taoiseach listed recent data on the economy and said that step by step, decision by decision, Ireland was on the road to economic recovery.

He said the State needed to confront the challenge facing it by way of a partnership between Government, business and the people. The Government had an open-door policy for businesspeople who had ideas on how to make the State a more attractive place to do business.

The institute’s newly elected president, Tom Byrne, said Irish company directors and business leaders must set high standards and take personal responsibility in their areas of influence.

Company directors had to ask difficult questions, encourage constructive debate, and challenge their company’s executive, he said.