THE PRESIDENT OF the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, has hailed Ireland’s performance in implementing economic reforms in a speech to a conference in Italy.

Van Rompuy was speaking to attendees at the Ambrosetti Forum on the shores of Lake Como yesterday when he hailed the performance of Ireland, citing the country’s tentative return to the bond markets over the summer.

In a wide-ranging speech, Van Rompuy reiterated his belief that the eurozone will overcome its current problems.

He said that the current crisis has far from killed solidarity between European countries and insisted that instead it has “revealed what it takes to be a union”.

Van Rompuy said that the realisation of the extent of the problems facing the single currency and the continent coupled with the reforms being implemented by European nations had given him confidence that the crisis will be overcome.

He told attendees: “Ireland is making such good progress on all fronts that since July Dublin is back to the international bond markets, attracting considerable investment from the US.”

In July, the State raised €4.2 billion in its first sale of long-term government bonds since it entered an EU-IMF bailout two years ago.

Van Rompuy added that another reason to have confidence in the eurozone recovery was that the European powers remained ready to help “when help is needed”.

The former prime minister of Belgium also said that Greece had the support of other members of the single currency as long as it remained committed to staying in the euro.

“So long as Greece is committed to the euro, its partners will continue to fully support its efforts,” he said.

You can read Van Rompuy’s speech in full here.

Read: Ireland will ‘probably fail’ to get bank debt deal by October – Bloomberg

Read: Ireland raises €4.19 billion in first return to bond markets

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