In a short time, the Irish will be taking over the presidency of the EU, which begins on 1 January.

This will be the their seventh presidency since joining the EU in 1973, so next year they will also be celebrating 40 years in the EU.

And in preparation, yesterday they hosted an OSCE meeting in Dublin with Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and 50 foreign ministers.

In preparation too, Lucinda Creighton, EPP Vice-President and Minister for Europe, was in Malta last week to speak to ministers and the Leader of the Opposition, as well as address a conference at the university.

She also found time to give this paper an interview.

Ireland has been preparing for the presidency for the past two years: there will be no less than 1,600 meetings, mostly in Brussels but some also in Dublin over which Irish ministers will preside. This is an opportunity to present Ireland not just to the Commission and to the European Parliament but also to the peoples of the member states.

The last time Ireland was President, it welcomed 10 new member states (including Malta) to the EU while in the one before that it welcomed the re-unified Germany into the EU.

2013 is also important for Ireland for what is known as The Gathering, (http://www.thegatheringireland.com/) to which people who have any kind of connection with Ireland are being invited to attend.

Malta and Ireland have much in common: both are island states on the periphery of Europe, both have similar ethos, both are open economies competing in a big world; both have chosen to promote financial services, pharmaceutical companies and R&D, and both have a competitive tax model.

Dr Creighton was rushing back home on Tuesday evening, not just for the OSCE meeting, which she was to part-chair, but also because Wednesday was Budget Day in Dublin.

The country has had five consecutive budgets to face up to the crisis. The past years have been very tough for the Irish people: they have seen their salaries cut and public spending slashed while people had to cope with significant tax increases.

The country still faces two more hard years until it reaches the three per cent deficit target but it is now universally acknowledged to be well on its way. Investment has started to flow in, mainly from the US, mainly in technology, pharmaceutical products, etc. Last year saw growth return to the economy, the first time since 2007.

The Irish government is not under pressure from Germany to push up its tax rates but it did come under pressure to do so from some member states in the worst part of the crisis, in 2010. The Irish government successfully argued that tax is a sovereign matter and the EU has no competency in that.

The Irish government also successfully argued that Ireland is a country on the periphery of Europe and thus requires further incentives to be able to compete on the international markets.

Nor is Ireland worried about the introduction of the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) by other member states. Ireland, like Malta, will not take part in FTT and only 11 of the 27 have signed up to it.

As she was speaking, Ecofin was meeting to prepare for this week’s Council, which should establish the framework of banking supervision. The discussions (Ireland, as the next President, gets to be involved in what is going on) are essential to further stabilize European economies.

That brings us to Greece. Like Greece, Ireland is in a programme and has being taking the medicine that has really brought it back to health.

As regards Greece, the issue is one of solidarity. Over the past months, many speculated that Greece would exit the euro (the Grexit) but the only real way to solve the problems in Europe is for everyone to stick together.

In the early stages of the crisis, there were doubts whether Greece had the will to do what needed to be done, but under the present government led by Prime Minister Samaras, Greece seems resolved to tackle its problems.

The Irish government, well aware of what it had to do to regain economic health, is in favour of anything that is realistic and sustainable to see Greece regain its economic health too.

In the case of Ireland, the fact that the Irish economy is an open one and a flexible one too undoubtedly helped it to regain growth rapidly. This is different from the situation in Greece where systemic changes need to be made and therefore will take longer to fix things. But we are all part of the same Europe and that means we must support and help each other, the minister concluded.