If the Government wants to mend fences with the EU following the Budget row, and there are indications it certainly wants to cool it without retracting anything, there will be plenty of opportunities in the next few months. A plethora of European Commissioners is due to visit us, culminating in the planned arrival of the President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, in June.
He aims to arrive after the Nice referendum, which is expected in May. If he came before the vote, it is debatable whether his presence would help or hinder the Government in getting it passed. Hinder it most probably. Chris Patten (External Relations) is due in Dublin for a lecture early next month; Michel Barnier (Regional Policy) will inspect EU-funded schemes at the end of March; Erkki Liikanen (Enterprise) goes to Ennis - the IT town - in April and later, Philip Busquin (Research) arrives to announce a new programme. Commission sources say all these visits present Bertie Ahern, Mary Harney and Charlie McCreevy with ideal opportunities to reiterate the State's commitment to the EU and to enlargement and to get the row out of the way. Those same sources argue that the Republic was among the first nine members of the community, it should play a much more pro-active role. Instead of being known as always looking for money and, of late, complaining about criticism, they say we should be looking at other countries and getting more involved by commenting on their economic policies. Part of the problem has been the lack of co-ordination between the Departments, with each Minister doing their own thing. Consequently, McCreevy could give the two fingers to Europe one day, while Joe Walsh could be looking for BSE concessions the next. Our diplomats, these sources argue, should be briefed in advance of likely trouble so they can soften up the opposition and set up strategic alliances. We did it for the UN Security Council but Iveagh House has little involvement with the Departments of Finance, Justice and Agriculture.
The Republic is the third wealthiest country after Luxembourg and Denmark and the aspirant nations from central and eastern Europe look to us for inspiration and we should, say these Irish EC sources, forget the negative and be more positive in advance of the new economic guidelines due out in June.