Dublin to pile on pressure as it takes EU helm

Report of a FT interview with Ireland Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, December 2012, in advance of Ireland assuming the Presidency of the European Union for the period January - June 2013.

He suggested that his government would push the burgeoning list of unfinished EU business – next steps towards a eurozone banking union, finalising laws giving Brussels more authority over national taxing and spending policies, a deal on a new seven-year EU budget – through the EU’s Byzantine legislative process.

Ireland could become the first of the eurozone’s five bailout countries in 2013 to emerge from a rescue programme if all goes according to schedule. But Dublin has been arguing for months that unless it gets some relief from Brussels on €64bn in bank debt still sitting on its sovereign books, even a country that has played by tough EU-imposed austerity rules may not make it.

EUObserver, 10.01.13: Ireland looks to 'successful' exit from bailout programme http://euobserver.com/economic/118690

---