It was also agreed at the Council Summit on 17 June to a wide range of measures to strengthen the EU economy and regulatory system.

As part of a suite of measures aimed at regulating the financial services, the European Council agreed that Member States should introduce systems of levies and taxes on financial institutions to ensure fair burden-sharing and to set incentives to contain systemic risk. Such levies or taxes should be part of a credible resolution framework.

A new European strategy for jobs and growth was agreed with research and development objectives detailed in the headline targets. The Council agreed to improve the conditions for research and development, in particular with the aim of raising combined public and private investment levels in this sector to 3% of GDP; the Commission will elaborate an indicator reflecting R&D and innovation intensity. This is a significant target given the latest Forfas figures which indicate that Research and Development gross expenditure in Ireland as a percentage of GDP for 2008 was 1.43%. The EU rate for 2008 was 1.77% so the goal of 3% if reached, will mean a doubling of R&D spend in Ireland.

Full details of the Council's plans and views are available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs
/pressdata/en/ec/115346.pdf