Nice vote sends 'positive message' to EU aspirants

In the second part of our series on the Irish Presidency of the EU,John Downes talks to Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Rocheabout his hopes for Ireland's tenure

Last week's Business 2000 examined the planning needed to ensure the upcoming Irish Presidency of the EU progresses as smoothly as possible.

As Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche will play a central role in this process, attending and chairing numerous EU meetings during the presidency.

So what are some of his - and the Government's - priorities for the Irish EU Presidency?

On a broad level, he says, he wishes to emphasise what he sees as the importance of a Europe that is "at peace with itself".

"A Europe that is focused on making the continent a better place to live, a better place to do business, is a Europe that is going to be positive about itself," he believes.

By voting in favour of the Nice Treaty - and the enlargement it will bring about - he believes the Irish people sent out a very positive message to the 10 countries due to accede to the EU on May 1st, 2004.

"There is an intuitive affinity in the Irish people with those people and it's reciprocal," he says. "It is also extraordinary to see how many of them regard us as a model that they want to follow."

A key element of Ireland's presidency will be the implementation of the agenda which emerged from a meeting of the European Council in March 2000.

Known as the Lisbon strategy, this set a 10-year goal for the EU to become the "most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion".

A review of the Lisbon strategy takes place during Ireland's presidency.

But how difficult will it be to incorporate its ambitious targets into the newly-enlarged EU?

"First of all, we actually have to make sure that the enlargement process is smooth and goes ahead, because there are still issues to be dealt with there," says Mr Roche.

"Second, however, our main priority is going to be to put a sense of dynamic into the Lisbon agenda. The problem is, we're now three years into it, we're going into the fourth year of the Lisbon agenda, and what most people can't see is, well, where is the concrete change?"

This has happened, he believes because, with each new presidency, people have brought new elements to the table. While there a lot of foundation work has been done, a principle objective of the Irish presidency will be to set about implementing the aims of the strategy.

"We're not going to bring anything extra to the table but what we are going to do is look at the agenda that exists and make sure that we select a number of areas where there can be real achievements," he says.

Two areas where he believes this can be done are competitiveness and employment.

"You have to make sure that whatever we do doesn't make Europe lose out vis-à-vis the rest of the world. We're benchmarking against each other, whereas we should be looking at what the rest of the world is doing. Now that's a very simple and straightforward point, but the point has been lost a little in terms of the debate," he believes.

"We also want to make absolutely certain that the European economy is focused in what it does, in the investment policies it takes," he says. "People are worried. Will jobs shift from one place to the other? Well the answer to that is no.

"We've already grown the amount of business we're doing with the 10 that are coming in from the point of view of Ireland, there's another 100 million people going to join the EU. Ireland is an exporting nation those countries will now look to Ireland, naturally, to import material," he believes.

"If you enhance or extend your domestic market, you extend the capacity for existing businesses to do more business," he says. "And when you [do this] you extend the capacity to create jobs. It's a win-win situation, not a zero-sum gain. And that's how it should be looked at."

Europe, he adds, also needs to be in a position to benefit economically from enlargement, by making sure that its regulations do not turn out to be damaging to its economic development. With this in mind, he says that the one specific area the Government intends to focus on is the need for service industries, to be able to trade across borders.

But will enlargement lead to an influx of people looking to work here?

"People who are Polish want to live in Poland. The people who live in Slovenia want to live in Slovenia those people want to make their lives and their futures in those countries," he replies.

"And I think that's why the argument that they are going to take our jobs, they are going to arrive on our doorstep, is so perverse. Remember, the people who do come over here and who are working in the Irish economy are making a very positive contribution to the Irish economy. And that's not often recognised."