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The Institute of International and European Affairs today hosted a Presidency Conference in Dublin Castle. The conference outlined the policy priorities of the Irish Presidency and considered some of the major issues likely to feature on the agenda from January to June 2013.

Education Minister Ruairí Quinn addressed the conference earlier today.

Speaking on the challenges facing Europe, Minister Quinn said:

The crisis has proved that our economies are far more interdependent than we previously imagined.

Common problems require joint solutions. No European state can isolate itself from the effects of the crisis no more than a state can manage its way out of the crisis alone.

History has demonstrated for us in the most horrible manner the effects of states looking defensively inward in responding to broader international crises.

This is why the Union is more important than ever in providing the forum to find joint solutions to the problems that face us.

Europe has always been at its strongest when it acts together.

Europe has never been more at peace than when it works together.

This is not idealism, but basic incontestable fact.

That is not to say that the EU response to the crisis has been perfect, but we have learned from mistakes made and indeed, elements of the Irish Presidency programme such as making progress on the Commission’s Banking Union proposals seek to ensure that we legislate to prevent a recurrence of past errors.

EU solidarity also seeks to ensure that states are not left to fend for themselves in an extremely difficult international climate.

On Ireland’s goals for its Presidency, Minister Quinn continued:

It is true that Ireland has never faced such a challenging Presidency agenda, but the Irish Government looks forward to seizing the opportunities that the Presidency presents to deliver real results for citizens across the Union.

Never before has an Irish Presidency agenda so closely mirrored our domestic priorities.

Since entering office eighteen months ago, the Irish Government has sought to restore stability to the state finances and the broader economy, to support a return to economic growth and to stimulate job creation.

Ireland’s programme for Government and the Irish Government’s Presidency programme are therefore similar in many respects.

Our core aim as Presidency, across every Council formation, will be to seek ways of supporting sustainable jobs and growth in Europe and of restoring economic stability to the European economy.

There is no doubt that the day-to-day agenda of the Presidency will continue to be dominated by the effects of the financial crisis. But more than four years after it began, we must firmly turn our attention to European economic growth and recovery, and social cohesion”.

Ireland will hold the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union for the first six months of 2013,. This is Ireland's seventh Presidency and arguably its most important

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