On the first day of a state visit to Belgium yesterday, President Mary McAleese said she believed the conditions could not be better for the completion of a powersharing deal in the North.
She is due to travel on to Italy, where she is scheduled to meet Pope Benedict at the Vatican on Friday.
"I absolutely believe the conditions could not be more right or better for powersharing . . . it was the fervent hope of voters in Northern Ireland," said Mrs McAleese, who was attending the opening of an exhibition of paintings to mark the 400th anniversary of St Anthony's College in Louvain, now known as the Irish College.
In Brussels yesterday European Commission president José Manuel Barroso confirmed he had written to the leaders of the four main Northern political parties offering to meet them.
A commission official said Mr Barroso was keen to explore ways the EU could further help to advance the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Since 1989 EU contributions towards the International Fund for Ireland, and a separate programme called Peace I and Peace II, have amounted to €1.2 billion.
In her speech at Louvain, Mrs McAleese said Ireland was now a success story par excellence of the EU and this was the first generation to know a combination of peace and prosperity. But she said it was still a work in progress and there was much to be accomplished in consolidating the peace, promoting reconciliation and building a comfortably multicultural Ireland.
She also emphasised the important role the Irish College in Louvain had played through its history as an educator of Irish priests and a place of Irish scholarship.
Mrs McAleese will host a business breakfast with Irish companies today before travelling to Italy.