The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said that the first summit during Ireland's EU presidency next year will focus on jobs, productivity and developing the European social model.
Mr Ahern was speaking in Brussels after an EU social summit with the leaders of Italy and the Netherlands and representatives from European employers' groups and trade unions.
"We are endeavouring to try and make the spring summit as effective as we possibly can," he said.
Yesterday's meeting was dominated by the presentation of a report by the former Dutch prime minister, Mr Wim Kok, who heads an EU employment task force.
The Taoiseach said Mr Kok's report had set out criteria for boosting employment and the Government was trying to move these into employment guidelines.
"What we are trying to do is very much what we do at home. We are trying to build the blocks - trade unions, employers, academics, advisers - and carry them through," he said.
The Minister of State responsible for Labour Affairs, Mr Frank Fahey, said the Government had identified a number of achievable goals, which tied into the key recommendations of the Kok report.
"They are making work pay, change and adaptability in the workplace and investment in human capital. Our concentration will be on trying to move forward those key areas and incorporate them as much as possible in the European employment strategy," he said.
Mr Fahey said the Government wanted to make the Lisbon agenda, which aims to make the EU the most competitive economy in the world by 2010, more meaningful for the European citizen. He said the European economy was seen as losing out to other major trading blocs such as the US and the Far East.
"We want to ensure we enliven the whole debate and get more results and that the balance between competitiveness and growth on one side and the social agenda on the other has got to be addressed. The critical challenge for us is to try to identify that balance as clearly as possible," he said.
Yesterday's social summit is part of the EU's effort to step up activity on the Lisbon agenda, which critics complain has amounted to little more than rhetoric. The Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, said the event demonstrated the EU's faith in the European social model, based on partnership and competitiveness.
"The European Social Model is based on mutual confidence and a partnership approach. The European Commission sees dialogue with the social partners as a fundamental part of that model," he said.