The Government will miss a deadline for submitting its response to the European Commission's request for an action plan on the Lisbon Agenda.
Ireland will be among several EU states to miss the deadline this weekend for the plan, which is a key plank of the commission's strategy to create jobs and boost competitiveness.
France, Sweden and Denmark will also miss the deadline, and several other member states are understood to be struggling to get their Lisbon Agenda strategies completed.
The Lisbon Agenda is the strategy designed to make the EU the world's most competitive regional economy by 2010. But its implementation has been haphazard leading to poor results, in part due to the failure of member states to become engaged with the strategy.
A Government spokesman said last night the Republic's action plan would be submitted to the commission before the end of October. He said it would stress a number of areas to improve competitiveness such as research and development, education and labour supply.
It would also focus on macroeconomic issues such as the public finances, he added.
Meanwhile, the Government renewed its plea to the commission yesterday to allow member states to provide grants to large projects, such as investments by Intel.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, met the competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, in Luxembourg at the EU competitiveness council to press the grant issue.
Speaking to The Irish Times after the meeting, Mr Martin said he had articulated the Irish position on state aid and urged the commission to take a global perspective.
The commission is currently reviewing state aid rules and the Government has already submitted a paper urging that member states "should retain some scope to aid large investment projects, including in areas which no longer qualify for regional aid".
Earlier this year the Government and the commission became embroiled in a bitter dispute over whether to allow grant aid to support a €2 billion investment by Intel.
EU finance ministers said yesterday that they saw no immediate danger that rising oil prices would cause wage inflation and higher consumer prices.
Following an Ecofin meeting in Luxembourg, deputy German Finance Minister Caio Koch-Weser said following the discussions, ministers saw no threat from rising inflation.
"Quite the opposite," said Mr Koch-Weser. "But of course we must remain vigilant, especially in countries which still have inflation-indexed wages like Spain."
