Senior Irish finance and statistics officials met representatives from the EU's statistical service, Eurostat, in Luxembourg yesterday evening in an attempt to resolve the row over regionalisation and the likely exclusion of Clare and Kerry from a possible new disadvantaged region.
Officials described the meeting as a useful exchange of views and were able to confirm with Eurostat, in the words of a Departmental spokeswoman, "that this is not the end of the matter". Intensive ongoing contacts will be maintained.
Sources in Eurostat and the spokeswoman had earlier cautioned against expectations that the meeting could do any more than clarify the respective positions of the two sides.
The head of Eurostat, Mr Yves Franchet, is away at present and any decision to go back on its ruling would certainly require his imprimatur. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who will be in Brussels tomorrow, will raise the issue with the President of the Commission, Mr Jacques Santer.
On Friday, at the mini-European summit in Bonn, the Taoiseach said he would make it clear that the Government saw the regionalisation proposal as an important ingredient in getting an equitable deal on Agenda 2000.
Questioned whether the Government would resubmit an application for 13 counties if Eurostat refused to change its position, he insisted the Government was still committed to the original proposal involving 15 but that it would have to take account of the course of negotiations.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has also written to both the Economic Affairs Commissioner, Mr Yves Thibault de Silguy, and the Regional Affairs Commissioner, Ms Monika WulfMathies, to set out the Irish case. A ruling last week by Eurostat has meant the probable exclusion of Clare and Kerry from a proposed 15-county western/ midlands disadvantaged region which would be still eligible for Objective One status and thus for the highest levels of EU structural funding.
In its ruling against the statistical justification for dismantling any of the eight sub-regions, of which the south-west is one, into which the State was divided in 1994, Eurostat made clear that it was not passing judgment on the substantive issue of dividing the country into two full regions.
But Eurostat, in its letter to the CSO, also drew attention to what it suggested was the too-narrow remit of the devolved regional structures being proposed by the Government - the statistical service contended that the remit involved very largely only the management of EU funds, a point disputed by Dublin which says they will have a role in ensuring public service delivery and contributing to national development plans.
And yesterday, while defending the decision, the Eurostat source insisted that they were prepared to look at alternative proposals if they are made. Brussels Commission sources have always been much more confident that an application involving 13 counties, but no changes in the sub-regional classifications, would have a far greater chance of success.
