By Tony Connelly, Europe Editor, in Davos
Despite the furore at home, Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s remarks that “people went mad borrowing” barely raised an eyebrow in Davos.
The Congress Hall in the main Davos Congress Centre was about a third full when the discussion panel entitled Rebuilding Europe began at 1430 Swiss time.
Across the scheduling spreadsheets there are dozens of meetings, forums, panels, debates in various formats over the six days of the World Economic Forum and in terms of box office, this would be a mid-table draw compared to the major crowd pullers like Angela Merkel, David Cameron, Mario Draghi and the like, not to mention celebrity economists, artists and future-thinking gurus.
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By Tony Connelly, Europe Editor, in Davos
The Taoiseach Enda Kenny is to make his first appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos later today. Mr Kenny will take part in a panel discussion with the Danish and Finnish prime ministers and the president of Poland on the theme of rebuilding Europe.
Earlier Mr Kenny will hold a bilateral meeting with the new Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, whose government currently chairs the rotating presidency of the European Union.
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By Tony Connelly, Europe Editor, in Brussels
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will meet Mario Draghi, the ECB president, in Frankfurt later today.
Although the two men will have met on the margins of EU finance ministers’ meetings, this will be their first formal meeting since the Italian took over from Jean-Claude Trichet in November.
The government is still seeking to lower the €63bn portion of the country’s debt burden which relates to the bailout of Irish banks. Dublin’s argument is that when the bank rescues took place instruments such as the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), with its low interest rate, were not available to the state.
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By Tony Connelly, Europe Editor, in Marseille
Winston Churchill once said of the Americans that they always did the right thing in the end – once they had exhausted every other option.
The questions hanging over this week’s Brussels summit is, will the same be said about Germany?
Germany has never been so central, and potentially so isolated, when it comes to European statecraft. Berlin’s intransigence over the ECB, eurobonds, treaty change has triggered criticism from elderly statesmen at home, like the former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, and abroad, from (even) French politicians who accuse Angela Merkel of acting like Bismarck did in the 19th century.
Yet Germany is not isolated completely. It carries with it the baggage and anxieties of other countries, usually fiscally responsible, triple A creditor ones, and it’s indispensable in finding a solution.
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By Tony Connelly, Europe Editor
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are bound up in an unlikely symbiosis. The Irish government needs to stay on the right side of Germany for vital political support at a time of unprecedented turmoil and a huge domestic debt burden; Berlin needs a bailout success story to showcase to the rest of Europe and to the world, in order to prove the virtues of austerity and sticking to the programme.
Although his first official visit to Germany has been in the works since the coalition took office last March, it has come to pass at a time when no eurozone leader’s speech or news conference is complete without a sunny reference to Ireland’s ability to meet its targets and to grow its economy.
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