GROUP BRIEFING:TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen met senior members of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform group (ELDR), the Liberal group in the EU, in advance of the summit in Brussels yesterday.
Mr Cowen briefed his ELDR colleagues about the nature of the legal guarantees being sought by the Irish Government before the Lisbon Treaty can be put to the people for a second time.
At a press conference after the meeting Mr Cowen said that if there was a satisfactory outcome at the summit he would move to name the date for a referendum.
The Taoiseach joined reform group colleagues in expressing support for giving EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso a second term.
Other senior reform group figures also backed Mr Barroso and said they would discuss the issue with the European People’s Party (EPP), the biggest group in the European Parliament, of which the commission president is a member.
Fianna Fáil’s membership of the ELDR means it is involved in one of the bigger groups in the parliament for the first time.
Fianna Fáil joined the reform group in April, in advance of the European elections.
The ELDR is the third biggest group in the European Parliament with five prime ministers from the 27 EU member states among its members.
The meeting was the first gathering of the reform group’s leaders since the European elections and one of the main items for discussion was the election result and the composition of the liberal democrat group in the European parliament.
During the meeting the ELDR leaders were also given a briefing on the priorities of the upcoming Swedish EU presidency by Maud Olofsson, the country’s deputy prime minister.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, speaking after the pre-summit meeting of the EPP in Brussels, said he had told his European colleagues that he fully supported the legal guarantees being sought by the Government.
“I gave them a run down on why the guarantees are necessary and why they should be given legal status in order to make it clear beyond doubt to the Irish people that their concerns are being addressed,” said Mr Kenny.
He added that there was strong support around the table from the other EPP leaders for a deal that would meet the Irish concerns.
Mr Kenny said that he had recommended to Mr Cowen at a meeting held on Tuesday that the referendum should be held before the Dáil came back for normal business in mid October.
“Fine Gael will not play politics with this. We will put the country first and campaign strongly for a Yes vote . . . ,” said Mr Kenny.
On the issue of the commission presidency he said that the EPP unanimously endorsed Mr Barroso and a decision would be made by the parliament on July 15th.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said he told fellow members of the Socialist Group of the importance to Ireland of the legal guarantees being sought by the Government.
“I conveyed to colleagues how important it was to give the guarantees to the Irish people and also how important it was that they be expressed in the form of a protocol,” he said.
British prime minister Gordon Brown was not at the meeting but Mr Gilmore said he had spoken to foreign secretary David Miliband, and told him that it was vital that the guarantees were enshrined in a way that would make it possible for the referendum to pass.
He also said the Socialist Group wanted Mr Barroso to outline his priorities to them before making a decision on whether they would endorse him for another term.
