Next Friday, Charlie McCreevy, with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, will face his Euro critics yet again at the Ecofin section of the EU summit in Stockholm. The Swedes' first summit - they joined the EU four years ago - is unlikely to be as important as Nice for three reasons: the main summit is in June in Gothenburg, there are no great decisions to be made and the Swedes are different. Most of Europe lost patience with the French at Nice and described them as dirigiste, i.e. autocratic and lacking in consultation, as well as being chauvinistic and badly organised.
The Swedes are low key and moving along politely. While the main issues next weekend will be enlargement, enterprise, competition and employment, what we will be looking out for is how we are received by our fellow Europeans. Stockholm will be the first big set-piece for the Republic in Europe since the formal reprimand some weeks ago over the Budget. Will there be any repercussions, by way of loss of friends? How will they treat us?
Only this week, the EU finance ministers urged one another to avoid give-away budgets and to balance tax cuts with reductions in public spending. McCreevy objected, but didn't block the proposal. This weekend, at Ecofin, rather than the prime ministerial council, there will be more of the same, with Belgium and Germany in particular urging adherence to the broad economic guidelines, to be endorsed in Gothenburg, for next year's budgets. Finance ministers will also argue that the general intentions of all budgets should be run by Ecofin itself, i.e. all the finance ministers should influence all the budgets. As one Eurocrat told Quidnunc: "The idea that his peers should interfere in his Budget is like a red rag to a bull to McCreevy" and he will oppose it totally. There won't, however, be a row; no decisions are on the agenda. Meanwhile, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden will be here next week for an engineering science conference in Dublin Castle.