Ahern to take tough line on EU funding

The Government will take a tough approach on EU funding and CAP reform in the Agenda 2000 negotiations and will not curry favour…

The Government will take a tough approach on EU funding and CAP reform in the Agenda 2000 negotiations and will not curry favour with any EU partners to obtain a better deal, the Taoiseach has indicated.

Yesterday, Mr Ahern told the European Movement's national conference in Dublin that, unlike in previous negotiations, it had to be accepted that there will be no massive expansion of funding to finance the European integration process.

Much would have to be done, he said, to respond to the challenges posed by Agenda 2000, which covers national funding, the EU's budgetary priorities, further reform of the CAP, the future of the structural and Cohesion funds and preparation for enlargement.

The Taoiseach said that the assistance received from the EU up to now had been crucial to development. He emphasised that these transfers had come as a result of policies agreed by the Union. "They have in no sense been handouts. References in this country to `begging bowls' entirely misunderstand the Union's own priorities and the nature of the negotiating process.

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"To read some commentators, one might think that our principal aim should be to curry favour with others, to apologise for the good deals negotiated by the Irish Government in the past and forgo a reasonable deal in the future. This will not happen."

Mr Ahern said that the Commission's proposals on CAP reform were unacceptable because of Ireland's dependence on milk and beef.

He intended to continue putting forward the argument that the phasing out of structural funding would impact more on Ireland than on any other member-state and the Government would decide within a matter of weeks on the possibility of adopting a regional approach.

The EU Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn, told the conference that there was no EU regulation which would prevent structural funding being allocated on a regional basis.

The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said that people now had to accept that Ireland had a rich economy. The era of the "beal bocht" had to end.

Mr Quinn said he believed the debate on Agenda 2000 had, so far, been too narrowly focused. Ireland would have to move ahead of defending the indefensible under which its first 25 years of membership had been characterised by an indulgence and tolerance of a relative poverty by other member-states.

Mr Liam Scollan, chief executive of the Western Development Commission, said he did not see the debate on Objective 1 status as a west-versus-Dublin issue. Responding to the concerns of marginalised people anywhere in Ireland demanded a radical change to the way we managed our economic development.

The Taoiseach told agriculture journalists at the conference that the question of extending the Family Income Supplement to farm families was "not on the agenda". While he understood the income problems faced by farm families, FIS would not be the vehicle used to address these. Negotiations to find a solution were continuing with the farming organisations.