During the presidency, which begins in January, Ireland will guide the final stages of the EU's enlargement into central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
At the launch of the logo yesterday in St Stephen's Green in Dublin, Mr Ahern said: "It is fitting that young people from all over Ireland join us here. The European Union is about people. It has and will continue to have a major impact on the lives of all our young people."
The logo from Dublin design company, Red Dog, was chosen by school students who voted on a number of designs commissioned by the Government. In blue and gold, it features a harp, along with three stars.
"We found the idea of the harp kept coming up again and again," said Red Dog managing director, Ms Mary O'Doherty. "It's very strongly identified with Ireland. We felt the logo had to be something that people could link to Ireland, but yet evoke a modern, progressive country.
"We abstracted the harp and used a very modern typeface for the lettering. The addition of three stars gives it movement and represents the formation of the EU logo," she said. "Colour also plays an important role and gold is a colour that represents Ireland perfectly as we are renowned for our wealth of artefacts, from the Book of Kells to the Ardagh Chalice, all of which feature gold heavily. We married this with dark presidential Irish blue and the blue of the EU," Ms O'Doherty added.
