merrion street

The Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton TD, begins a two day visit to Frankfurt today (Tuesday, 19th March 2013). Minister Creighton delivered a speech on Ireland’s EU Presidency Progress to the Frankfurt School for Finance and Management. Tomorrow the Minister will be a keynote speaker at the Deutsche Bank 2013 Women in Business Conference, one of the leading gatherings of female executives in Europe.

Speaking in Frankfurt Minister Creighton said:

“Today is day 78 of Ireland’s seventh Presidency of the Council of the European Union. We are almost at the half way point. A sense of our role in Europe as well as a determination to drive forward both the Irish recovery and the European recovery were the overriding factors which influenced our preparations for this Presidency. Having lived the crisis for the past five years, we were determined to bring our experience to the table in a constructive and productive manner. “

“I am proud to be able to report that in our first three months we have delivered some concrete results with real benefits for the people of Europe. These have included: the negotiations on the EU budget – the Multiannual Financial Framework are on track; real progress has been made in addressing youth unemployment; broad agreement is in place to pursue negotiations on an EU-US Trade and Investment agreement; the Presidency brokered agreements with the European Parliament on the so called “Two Pack” of economic governance legislation and on overhauling banking regulations; agriculture ministers responded decisively to the mislabelling of meat products; and the European Year of the Citizen was launched in Dublin.”

“Of course, the Irish Presidency does not take sole credit for these achievements. They represent the type of patient and carefully worked our compromises which are at the heart of what the EU does best.”

The Minister will also meet the Irish Business Network while in Frankfurt.