Frankfurt - The Minister for Foreign Affairs has denied that Ireland is cooling towards Europe and expressed support for the European social model, writes Denis Staunton, European Correspondent
Speaking last night to German and Irish business leaders in Frankfurt, Mr Cowen played down the recent Budget dispute with Brussels and predicted that voters would support the ratification of the Nice Treaty in a referendum.
"I would not like the impression to get abroad that Ireland's commitment to Europe and to the economic and monetary union has somehow begun to diminish. Let me say straight away that it has not," he said.
"The European Union is our Union as much as it is Germany's Union. Four times in the last three decades the Irish electorate have affirmed their support to the Union in a referendum. I am confident that they will do so again in supporting ratification of the Treaty of Nice and the commitment to enlargement."
Mr Cowen expressed support for a German proposal to define formally which issues should be dealt with at a European, national or regional level. And he signalled that the Government still believed that Ireland's interest lay in further European integration.
"Those familiar with our record will know that whenever we faced a choice, we have always taken the path of closer European co-operation. We did so, despite the difficulties with our nearest market in the UK, when we signed up to EMU, as we had previously done for the Social Chapter," he said.