The slogan "No to NATO, No to Nice" has been condemned as "unpardonable" by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen. The slogan is being used by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) in its campaign for a No vote in the June 7th referendum on the Nice Treaty.
"I really have to condemn that," the Minister said. "I know slogans by their nature have to be encapsulating and succinct but it is really unpardonable in my opinion that you have this sort of a slogan as if it had any basis in fact."
Unlike NATO, there was no mutual defence guarantee commitment within the European Union. "NATO has been formed for the purpose that if any one country in NATO is attacked, all others undertake to come to its assistance and defence and fight on its behalf. The European Union is not in that business, so when people say `If you vote No to Nice, you vote No to NATO', the corollary supposition I presume they are trying to put across to the public is that if you vote Yes to Nice, you vote Yes to NATO."
There was nothing in the Treaty of Nice about NATO: "It's not an issue, it is a totally separate organisation. That type of approach really doesn't do any service to those who presumably are genuinely against the treaty. Let's have a factual and informed debate here."
The Minister was also sharply critical of Sinn Fein's stance against the treaty which he said was without substance and demonstrated "a level of immaturity and out-of-touchness" that was quite revealing. "It's a time-warp, it's almost back to their attitude in 1972 when we joined the [European Economic] Community in the first place. It is as if the last 30 years never happened." These benefits included the aid given to Border regions and for peace and reconciliation, and he said that "language lost its meaning" when Sinn Fein claimed the EU had reinforced Partition.
Meanwhile, the Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley, said the "militarisation of Europe" was one of the reasons people should vote against the treaty. It provided for the integration of the Western European Union - which he described as "the European wing of NATO" - into the EU. "At the time of the Amsterdam Treaty we were told, `Don't worry, we still only have observer status at the WEU.' "
The Rapid Reaction Force would carry out Petersberg Tasks: the Yes side had tried to portray these as "a mixture between the Boy Scouts and the Red Cross" but it was much more than that. "We are seeing really the creation of a European army." No one mentioned during the debate on the Amsterdam Treaty that a Rapid Reaction Force would be established: "And yet, that is what we have right now. And clearly those who say that it has not impinged on our neutrality have been talking nonsense."