 A gweinwyshle, embasador Montgomery, embasador Hany, a chael ei yw'r gweinwyshle ar ffad. Byw a'r merddws, mae'r wych ysglau cais o'ch dymch chi'n chyreu efo'r event sy'n o'ch ddweud. Tometh yswyl gymor lle sy'n ddisborych, ac mae'r cystun i eich ywch chiwc ysbryd mewn ffisigantau. A gweithio'n gwyll gylio'r gorffedl i'n y lecheli. Mae hag yn ddechrau'n ei ffad y taw lunihe yn siar sy'n rwsiell lecheli o'r om gael o'r gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gwyllteisio'n ffeir hawrthach. Lleidydd y ddechrau, mae'n dweud y parol yn y parolion europei, mae'r Prif Weinidog yn ddysgrifio'r cyfrifiadau cyfrifiadau yn gwahodd o'r cofnidol a cysygoddol o'r syniadol yn ddysgrifio'r cyfrifiadau. Fe gwrth hynny, mae'r ffordd gyda'r cyfrifiadau yn gweithio cyfrifiadau o'r amser gan gyfrifiadau amfysgol, cyfrifiadau i gwrth pethau'n gweithio, ac mae hynny'n gweithio ysgrifennu y meddwl am y llebonen o'r Europ. Mae'r ffordd cyfrifiadau yn gweithio'r cyfrifiadau ond mae'n gweithio'r tawf, ac ysgrifetau ar y dyspodd. That's why I'm determined to use research, innovation and science as the big guns in our fight for jobs and prosperity. Europe quite rightly is currently focusing on promoting economic stability, but that's only the beginning. We also need urgently to promote growth. At the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy adopted last year by the EU member states is the conviction that we need to innovate to get Europe back on the path to growth in jobs. And we need Europe to innovate in order to tackle our major societal challenges such as sustainable mobility, climate change, energy security are our aging population. Innovation Union, which I launched nearly a year ago, aims to improve the basic conditions that will let entrepreneurs and companies in Europe grow and flourish. Creating an environment in which businesses large and small can prosper is crucial to achieving the smart, sustainable and inclusive growth that Europe desperately needs. Europe produces excellent researchers performing top-class research. We just need to get better at commercialising our bright ideas. While MP3 technology was developed in Germany, it took a company with the innovation vision of Apple to turn this into a worldwide money spinner. So we're concentrating on putting in place the conditions that will smooth the path from laboratory to market, from excellent research to new products that people want to buy. We need faster standard setting, more affordable patents, more public procurement of innovative products and services, better access to venture capital and a genuine European knowledge market. We make specific commitments in Innovation Union on how to achieve these objectives within clearly defined timescales. And in support of this ambitious programme, we received the highest political backing from the Member States at the European Council conclusions on the February the 4th last. The Member States are keen to reverse Europe's failure to make the necessary structural reforms and investments in innovation and growth, including investment in education and training, in key enabling technologies or advanced manufacturing. While the difficulties are enormous, I see that there is a consensus that we must act now, we must act decisively, and we must act together to tackle our innovation emergency. The potential rewards are great. To give just one example, according to studies carried out for the Commission, achieving the EU's commonly agreed target of investing 3% of GDP in R&D could create 3.7 million jobs and increase annual GDP by close to 800 billion euro by 2025. As well as having policy responsibility for Europe's innovation agenda, my role as the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science means that I am also in charge of the world's largest publicly funded research programme, FP7. It has a budget of 55 billion euro, the vast bulk of which is of course spent in the Member States. The framework programme supports the goals of innovation union and finances collaborative research projects across Europe in areas such as agriculture, fisheries and food, health, nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and communication technologies, transport, energy, environment and climate change, SMEs, security and peace. The good news for Ireland is that Irish universities, research organisations and companies have already received over 300 million euro in financial support under FP7, much more than would have been expected for a country of Ireland size, and they are on course to draw down a total of over 600 million euro by the end of the programme in 2013. As for the future, we are proposing to replace the seventh framework programme in 2014 with a new funding framework Horizon 2020. It will make our support for research and innovation simpler, more efficient and more effective at delivering the bigger impacts that are needed to sustain growth and tackle the societal challenges such as climate change, health, energy and food security. We will drastically cut red tape so that our researchers spend less time form filling and much more time in the laboratory. And in line with our innovation union objectives, Horizon 2020 will give us a coherent set of funding instruments along the innovation chain from basic research to market uptake. Horizon 2020 forms part of the European Commission's proposed European budget for the period 2014 to 2020. This is a budget designed to stimulate growth and jobs. The overall financial envelope is ambitious but realistic. The European Commission's proposal to increase support for research and innovation under Horizon 2020 to 80 billion euro will now be discussed of course as we know by the European Parliament and the Member States. I'm confident that they'll agree with our strategy. Our proposal fits within the approach currently being taken in many of the Member States, France, Germany and indeed Ireland to increase spending on education, training, R&D and innovation as the roots to future growth. Even during difficult economic times, EU governments must put in place strategies for growth and support for research, innovation and science is an economic policy. Prioritising investment in these areas now is the recipe to ensuring growth and jobs for the future. As well as continuing to reform and renew our national research and innovation systems, the Member States have given a very clear signal that the long-promised European research area, the era must be in place by 2014. We can think of era as a single market for research and ideas. The European research area will remove the barriers to the free movement of researchers, connect up national researchers and reduce fragmentation and duplication so that we can get the best out of our research. It will aim to spread excellence by encouraging cross-border collaboration and open innovation. Creating a genuine European research area as a robust substructure of our knowledge economy will send a clear signal that Europe is serious about innovation and serious about growth and era will present huge opportunities for all of Europe's regions and Member States. For countries like Ireland with a well-positioned innovation base properly targeted, the painful reforms underway offer an opportunity to come out of the crisis with an economy that is ready for the European research area and ready for action on the global stage. In a nutshell, in a globally competitive economy, growth can be generated through either speculation or innovation. This is a strategic choice to be made by the Member States and it is part of the innovation emergency facing the European economy as a whole as we seek to anchor new growth in a competitive and open economy. In 2010 Ireland had the second highest exports as a percentage of GDP in the EU beaten only by Luxembourg. Ireland ranks seventh in the EU for the proportion of maths, science and technology degrees awarded at honours level and above. According to Eurostat, in 2010 Ireland had the second largest goods trade surplus in the entire EU after Germany to the value of 43 billion euro. Ireland is still an attractive destination for foreign inward investment, offering high skill levels and a sophisticated business environment. Ireland's export base is knowledge intensive with around one-third of exports classified as high tech in areas such as information and communication technologies and the life sciences. That's nearly double the EU average. The 2010 European Innovation Union scoreboard published last February ranks Ireland's innovation performance above the EU average and in keeping with a smart consolidation approach Irish government spending on science technology and innovation programmes is due to increase by 9% in 2011 to approximately 460 million euro. All this bodes well but there are still some weaknesses that need to be addressed such as the fact that the rate of patent applications to the European Patent Office, a good indicator usually of innovation, is much lower than the EU average. There is recognition outside Ireland of the very tough and difficult decisions that have been taken and the many sacrifices that are being made to put Ireland's economy back on track. The current approach of the Irish government is the correct one and it's already proving effective. I have very close dealings with Antishaq and members of his government in addressing political issues of concern to our country in the European context and indeed the Tornigthe who was here last week called in to discuss among other things the upcoming presidency of the European Union and what this means in terms of resources for the government and for the public service. Just a couple of hours ago we met in the office the members of the joint Erechthys Committee on European Affairs who again are very focused on what needs to be done, what support is there and what they need to do to engage with the institutions in Europe. On September the 9th last the European Commission published the summer 2011 review of the economic adjustment programme for Ireland. It found that the Irish programme is well on track with important progress made in the areas of fiscal consolidation, strengthening of the domestic financial sector and growth enhancing structural reforms. Positive growth is expected in 2011 as a result of strong exports but this growth is likely to be modest since domestic demand remains subdued. The commission report also found that the banking sector is being restored to health as reforms are implemented. The government deficit for 2011 as a whole is projected to fall below the 10.6% of GDP target. While I'm not here to talk in detail about bank subsidies or about Ireland's debt problem I will say that in my professional role and as an Irish woman I'm acutely conscious of the current economic predicament and indeed the mood in Ireland. I'm fully aware of the sacrifices that are being made by people in the countries like Ireland that are implementing budget cuts. The daily difficulties that families and communities are facing must not be overshadowed under any circumstances by the broader macroeconomic debate in particular in the countries that are not experiencing such painful reforms. The European Commission including the president and Ali Ren have been steadfast in supporting a substantial reduction in the interest rate for Ireland's loan in the context of the EU IMF package. The reduction that we've seen means the savings of 3.75% of GDP for Ireland. The seriousness with which Ireland has addressed the issues has been a defining feature throughout this crisis. I'm convinced that this effective and serious engagement with Europe will continue to be a key asset for Ireland. Ireland's enduring reputation in Europe has been formed by a generation of people showing commitment, innovation, progress, effort and example. Two talented Irish people in succession, David O'Sullivan and Catherine Day have been the top civil servants in the European Commission. Ambassadors Rory Montgomery and Tom Hane and the staff of the Irish permanent representation to the EU work tirelessly to represent Ireland's interests in Brussels within the core repair structure. I'm also very pleased to have an excellent working relationship with the Irish members of the European Parliament and of course with the members of the Committee of the Regions. Ireland's role in Europe is shortly about to become even more important. Ireland, as all of you know, will hold the presidency of the council in the first half of 2013 and will be responsible indeed for steering our very important budget discussions to a satisfactory conclusion. Closer to my own portfolio, Irish science and innovation will have a chance to shine on the international stage in 2012. Dublin will then be the European city of science and will host Europe's largest science conference, the Euro Science Open Forum. Ladies and gentlemen, every generation has to take a good hard look and decide what Europe means to them, what kind of Europe they want to build. I think that we are at such a critical moment right now. This kind of self-examination is a sign of strength not weakness. The European Union now and in its previous guises as the European community and the EEC has always had to adapt to change and manage crisis with the larger countries standing shoulder to shoulder with the smaller ones. I think that Europe is living through its third great transition. We've moved from the age of reconciliation after the Second World War to an age of reunification after the fall of communism and now we're trying to manage a profound economic transition to an age of renewal. In each of these transitions we manage the upheavals by pulling together in the common interest and this unity is not abstract or theoretical. In fact I call it enlightened self-interest. It is to everyone's benefit to work together in the same direction. My vision of Europe is one where we support each other through difficult times, a Europe where we pull together not drift apart. We have strength, influence and safety in numbers. The European Union is a negotiation between complexity and progress, between events and solutions, between history and innovation, but ultimately the European Union is about people. My vision of Europe is founded on actively defending people's rights and on giving them the opportunity to lead secure productive and healthy lives. Europe protects the interest of consumers across the continent against unfair monopolies and dubious business practices. Europe is the defender of workers and of entrepreneurs. The European Commission is instrumental in ensuring the application of rules that uphold the rights and interests of ordinary workers and in creating the conditions to help businesses and innovators flourish and create new jobs. Europe works hard to ensure that the food we eat is safe and plentiful. Yes, individual countries can do many of these things as well, but with the current economic crisis and against the background of an increasingly globalised and technological world, the challenges faced by our society now are so great and so complex that we must stay united and face them together. So my vision of Europe is one where we keep working together so that we continue to make a positive difference to people's lives. Gwremaheid.