THE Government has been criticised for its "failure" to place the long term future of the EU budget on its agenda for Ireland's presidency.
Speaking in Galway yesterday, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, expressed concern at indications from the European Commission that parts of Ireland would lose their structural funding levels.
He warned that the accession of Eastern European countries to the EU would place "enormous pressure" on the Union's budget and have serious implications for structural funding in this country as well as the future of the Common Agricultural Policy.
"Cuts in both structural funding and CAP could well result if the EU budget is not increased. In such an eventuality, Ireland would suffer disproportionately. Now is the time to address these difficult political issues", Mr Ahern added.
Ireland's presidency offered the best opportunity to put these matters on the EU agenda.
He was also concerned that the Commission "would seem to be taking a definitive position on the future allocation of structural funds at this early stage". Last June, the Commissioner for Regional Affairs, Ms Monika Wulf Mathies, informed a key committee of the German Bundestag that parts of Ireland would no longer be eligible for the present level of structural funding, he said.