Taoiseach Enda Kenny has called on EU leaders to take decisive action to resolve the euro zone economic crisis.
In brief comments to reporters as he entered the Justus Lipsius building tonight for a dinner meeting involving the 27 EU leaders, he set out his aspirations for the outcome of the summit.
“We hope to make a situation happen here where there is clarity of decision and protection of the euro and the stability of the euro zone.
“This is of absolute and critical importance and I hope that the leaders on the Council focus on this areas this evening and tomorrow,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Mr Kenny said he strongly supported the idea of stronger fiscal governance in the euro zone and throughout Europe.
The Taoiseach's earlier comments came at pre-summit talks in Marseilles this afternoon which was attended by a number of centre-right EU leaders including German chancellor Angela Merkel.
"We need decisiveness and clarity and simplicity from European leaders...it's important that decisions be made and that they be implemented," he told guests at the European People's Party (EPP) meeting.
"New rules alone will not be enough to bring stability to the euro zone, we have to take clear decisions now. We've got to be able to prove and demonstrate that when we make decisions we are prepared to stand by those decisions," he added.
Mr Kenny also said that Ireland could be "the first example of a country using solidarity and support ... to emerge from a bailout situation."
On possible corporate tax harmonisation, which the Government opposes, Mr Kenny said Ireland’s position had been made “very clear”.
Earlier today European Commission president Jose Barroso urged government leaders to set aside differences and strike a deal for more fiscal discipline to restore confidence in the euro at a European Union summit starting later today.
"The world is watching Europe," Mr Barroso told reporters upon arriving at the EPP meeting. "What I expect from all heads of state and government is that they don't come saying what they cannot do, but what they will do for Europe. What the world expects from us is not more national problems, but European solutions."
French president Nicolas Sarkozy also dramatised the danger facing the 17-nation single currency area in his speech at the pre-summit.
"Never has the risk of Europe exploding been so big," he said. "The diagnosis is that the euro, which should inspire confidence, is not inspiring this confidence. The diagnosis is that we have a few weeks to decide, because time is working against us."
"If there is no deal on Friday, there will be no second chance," he added.
There is anxiety in Dublin over a British push for concessions in a new rescue pact and widespread concern over Germany’s rejection of a fast-track plan for treaty change.
Denmark is prepared to back EU treaty change if it helps resolve the debt crisis, prime minister Helle
Thorning-Schmidt said tonight.
Ms Thorning-Schmidt said that as well as working towards treaty change, it was essential for the euro zone and the broader EU to put a proper firewall in place to defend against market pressures, and said Denmark would be willing to contribute funds to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help bolster its ability to tackle the crisis.
Ms Thorning-Schmidt said the Danish central bank was prepared to provide 40 billion Danish crowns (€5.4 billion), if asked to contribute funds.
The two-day high-stakes summit in Brussels has been billed as a final opportunity for the leaders to assert control. It comes amid expectation that the European Central Bank will escalate its interventions in bond markets and, possibly, provide emergency loans to the International Monetary Fund. The bank has indicated, however, that it will go down this road only if leaders make a binding political pledge to reinforce budget rules underpinning the euro.
Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker said today he hoped Britain would not stand in the way of a solid response to the euro zone debt crisis.
Speaking on French state radio, Mr Juncker, who chairs meetings of finance ministers from the euro zone, said the euro was not under threat but EU governments had to come up with a response that stemmed the debt crisis.
Mr Juncker said Britain, considered a reluctant partner in the drive to tighten up financial sector regulation, should not be allowed stand in the way of treaty changes and other measures needed to address the crisis that has engulfed the euro area.
"There has to be a deal," he told France Info radio, adding regarding the currency shared by 17 countries, "The euro itself . . . is in no way at risk."
As last-minute talks continued throughout yesterday, there was concern in Brussels and beyond that a comprehensive pact to eliminate all doubt about Europe’s response to the debacle might remain elusive.
Amid gloomy signals from Berlin and warnings from Paris that any failure to reach a deal would be very dangerous, a senior European source said last night that there was still a need for compromise.
“If we are not united, this is going to be very badly perceived by the markets, investors,” the source said. Any disagreement would be unhelpful from “a confidence point of view”. As pressure builds for a deal, the attitude of British prime minister David Cameron towards treaty change is rapidly emerging as a potential flashpoint.
A senior European diplomat said this question was likely to overshadow talks, which begin tonight in Brussels and continue tomorrow.
Mr Cameron wants to extract a concession from the summit in return for his acceptance of any treaty change and argues it would be very difficult to achieve parliamentary support without it.
This has prompted worry in Dublin that he might push to exempt parts of the City of London market from Europe’s drive to intensify financial regulation or from the clamour for a tax on financial transactions.
The Government is said to be “very concerned that no sweetheart deal is offered to Britain”. Such concern focuses on the danger that any move to favour the City of London would put the International Financial Services Centre at a distinct disadvantage.
Mr Cameron’s stance has not gone down well in Brussels but the senior European source acknowledged that he may have to be offered some form of inducement to ensure British support for the move.
A further question of concern to Enda Kenny emerged last night when France and Germany called for an escalation of the effort to harmonise the corporate tax base in Europe.
While the governing council of the ECB holds a meeting today in Frankfurt, it is unlikely to make public any plans for a new intervention until well after the talks in Brussels.
Looming over final preparations for the summit is Germany’s flat rejection of a proposal to fast-track changes to the Lisbon Treaty to toughen the enforcement of an EU budget. The European source said this proposal, under which Ireland would probably not have to have a referendum, has found favour with a “majority” of member states.
In Berlin, however, the response was frosty. A senior German official dismissed the initiative as a piece of “typical Brussels legal trickery” and said it would not fly. This has fanned concern that Dr Merkel will insist on full-blown treaty change, a laborious process with unpredictable political consequences in many countries.