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Transcript of Remarks by Special Adviser of the Secretary-General Alexander Downer following 16 March meeting

I only want briefly to say on behalf of the two leaders, who have been meeting here, that they discussed today European Union matters. They had a very good discussion about those issues, very technical issues – the European Union issues. And the Representatives will be meeting again on Friday to do a bit more work on European [Union] issues.

Question: Have they exchanged any documents today?

Mr Downer: On the EU?

Question: Yes.

Mr Downer: There have, of course, been convergence documents worked on for quite some period of time. They have documents that they’re working on which both sides have. So they didn’t actually exchange papers, but they are working on these documents.

Question: Will they be revisiting the governance and power-sharing issue?

Mr Downer: We’ll just see how the discussions at the Representatives\' level go this week, assuming that the Representatives have some discussions during the course of next week, and some of the working groups may, of course -- some of the technical people, rather -- might get together, of course, during the course of the next week. We’ll see how that goes.

Question: They have not discussed the economy?

Mr Downer: Not today. Today they really focused on European Union matters, not on the economy. But, of course, they had very good discussions on the economy at the technical and the working levels, including at the end of last week. I think I am right in saying last that Friday, last Friday afternoon, the technical people who deal with the economy had quite a long meeting, and quite a successful meeting as well. So, they’ve taken that issue forward at the technical level.

Question: The next meeting will be the last meeting between the two leaders?

Mr Downer: It’s how it looks at the moment. And that will be on the 30th [of March]. So, the current plan is for that to be the last meeting before there is a break for the elections in the north.

Question: Maybe we will have a common statement between the two leaders?

Mr Downer: There is no clarity on that at this stage. That will be a matter for the leaders to consider when they next meet.

Question: What will they discuss at the next meeting?

Mr Downer: It’s a bit far off. That’s going to depend a bit on how any further technical discussions that are needed on the economy go, any technical discussions on the economy, on the European Union go at the end of this week, and various other discussions that are taking place. They’ll make a decision on that nearer the time.

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