TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny will travel to Brussels later this week for talks on the euro zone debt crisis with European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.
The meeting will be one of a number Mr Barroso is holding with national leaders following the decision to postpone an EU summit on the debt crisis for almost a week.
A Government spokesman confirmed last night the Taoiseach would meet the commission president and said the meeting was taking place at Mr Barroso’s suggestion to discuss the challenges facing the EU.
Euro zone finance ministers will be called to an emergency meeting later this week as efforts intensify to reach a comprehensive new deal to finally settle the debt crisis.
The flurry of meetings follows the Franco-German summit in Berlin at which Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy declared they had reached agreement on the need for changes to the Lisbon Treaty, and bank recapitalisation.
Mr Kenny and Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore expressed a preference for dealing with the EU debt crisis under existing programmes and treaties.
Mr Kenny said he would prefer to see the Lisbon Treaty “explored to the limit”.
He was speaking in Galway, where he was campaigning with Fine Gael presidential candidate Gay Mitchell. “Personally, I do not have a very strong inclination to be talking about referendum treaty changes when you can neither guarantee the outcome, nor the timescale for any of the countries in Europe.”
He said changes in the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF)represented a change to the Lisbon Treaty, but this did not require a referendum. “We support that, because my view is that we have a crisis now and this crisis must be dealt with in the short term,” he said. “That means that you use all of the instruments, all of the facilities that were agreed upon and signed off on July 21st under the EFSF programme to deal with the current crisis.”
Mr Gilmore said there was not an appetite for treaty changes that would require a referendum in Ireland. “I think that what needs to be done to deal with both the banking situation in Europe and the financial situation in Europe is to implement the measures that have already been agreed and to do the things that it is possible to do within the existing treaty framework,” he said.
The big problem this summer was that decisions made on July 21st were not implemented quickly enough, he said. “So I think before we get into the business of further changes in the treaty, let’s do the things that it is possible to do under the existing treaty framework and let’s implement and let all of the countries in Europe implement the decisions that were made on the 21st of July.”
Minister of State for Europe Lucinda Creighton said it was premature to discuss treaty change but added such a move could not be ruled out in the future. “The immediate crisis demands that we find a solution to the Greek problem.
“Obviously if Greece encounters any more dramatic difficulties it’s going to have an effect on all of us and on the euro currency,” she said.
Ms Creighton, in Luxembourg for a meeting of EU ministers, said it was important to see how the existing agreement to strengthen EU budget rules worked out.
Asked whether it would be difficult to persuade Irish people to back another EU referendum, she said that would depend on whether the proposal was in Ireland’s interest.
“I think if the Irish people saw that a change to the treaty would make our currency more robust, would make Ireland more competitive, would ensure a strong and stable future, that we emerge from this crisis, then I don’t think they would think twice,” she said.