TÁNAISTE EAMON GILMORE will arrive in Germany today, where he will meet with the country’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle in Berlin.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said that the men will discuss European developments, including the Irish programme and the special circumstances related to Irish bank debt.
Their meeting will also focus on plans for the Irish Presidency of the European Union as well as a number of important foreign policy issues notably the situation in Syria, Iran, the Middle East Peace Process and the OSCE.
In the afternoon, the Tánaiste will meet with Peer Steinbrück, the recently nominated Chancellor Candidate for the German Social Democrats, before addressing a large audience at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (German political foundation) on the topic: “Moving beyond the crisis – a shared future in Europe”.
The Tánaiste will also participate at the first meeting of the Global Irish Network in continental Europe, at the Embassy in Berlin. It will be attended by Irish people who occupy senior positions in a range of European countries and is part of the follow up to last year’s meeting of the network in Dublin.
Meanwhile, Norbert Barthle of the CDU group in the Bundestag budgetary affairs committee told RTÉ that if Ireland applied to the European Stability Mechanism for a second programme, then new conditions would apply. This is due to new rules as the programme Ireland is currently on falls under the ESM’s predecessor, the EFSF.
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