THE GOVERNMENT is lobbying hard to try to persuade other EU member states to sign off on a €5 billion economic stimulus package at this week’s EU leaders’ summit.
The package, which has been tabled by the European Commission, would provide more than €100 million to help build an electricity interconnector between Ireland and Britain, and fund wind-power projects and rural broadband in Ireland.
The stimulus plan has run into political trouble, however, with several EU states threatening to veto it over concerns about the scope of the projects being offered financial support and the source of the funding.
EU foreign ministers failed to reach agreement on the package in Brussels yesterday with Germany, France and Austria holding out against a compromise proposal tabled by the Czech EU presidency.
Berlin believes the list of projects put forward by the commission is weak as some are not ready to begin immediately.
The Germans argue that the projects pinpointed for funding would provide no new economic stimulus, while several states want more money for their own pet projects, said one European diplomat who did not want to be named.
Since commission president José Manuel Barroso tabled the €5 billion stimulus plan, several amendments have been made to it to assuage the concerns of some EU states.
Some funding was originally intended to be sourced from unused money from the 2008 EU budget.
However, this was opposed by net payers into the budget, who usually get unused funding repaid to their national exchequers.
The Czech compromise proposal suggests using money from the 2009 and 2010 budget.
An Irish official said the Government was pushing the proposal and hoped an agreement could be reached at this week’s summit.
“Ireland strongly supports the plan. We would like to see it approved and implemented quickly,” the official said.