When the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, met his counterparts from other euro zone states yesterday morning, he treated them to a short dissertation on Ireland's success in overcoming employment and poverty traps. The paper, which outlined how the Government tweaked tax and benefits to ensure that the low-paid were better off than the unemployed, had been scheduled for last month's meeting of EU finance ministers in Malmo.
As it turned out, yesterday was the perfect day for Mr McCreevy to trumpet the Government's success in overcoming a problem that still troubles many EU governments. In the afternoon the 15 EU finance ministers were due to discuss the Commission's proposals for this year's Broad Economic Policy Guidelines.
This was the first chance the ministers have had to discuss the guidelines since the Commission published them last month. And most member-states were unhappy with the criticisms directed towards themselves.
Mr McCreevy asked the ministers to delete from the guidelines a call for the Government to take action during this fiscal year to offset the inflationary impact of last December's budget. He argued that recent developments in the Irish economy meant that the danger of overheating could be averted without recourse to such measures.
Commission officials stressed last night that yesterday's discussion was a preliminary one and that serious negotiations on redrafting the guidelines will begin in two weeks when treasury officials from the 15 member-states meet in the Economic and Financial Committee.
The Commission claims that there is nothing new in the guidelines for Ireland and that it is simply repeating the message of February's formal EU reprimand over the budget. In doing so, the Commission argues that it is simply showing consistency.
Brussels officials are aware of the fact that a fresh row with Ireland could fuel anti-EU feeling in advance of the forthcoming referendum on the Treaty of Nice. But they insist that they cannot simply abandon their work or change the guidelines because one member-state is holding a referendum.
Mr McCreevy promised yesterday to "stick to his guns" and the Commission has indicated that it will take a similarly stubborn approach. But from now on, it is the other member-states rather than the Commission that Mr McCreevy needs to persuade of the merits of his case.
His chances of securing concessions may be better than they were in advance of February's reprimand, not least because other ministers will be seeking changes to the guidelines too.
