Nothing in the Nice Treaty threatens Ireland's traditional neutrality, and the Seville Declarations emphasise that, argues the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern
At the Seville European Council yesterday, I sought and received the agreement of the EU heads of state or government on the Seville Declarations on Irish neutrality.
I presented to the European Council a National Declaration by Ireland that reaffirms Ireland's continued attachment to its traditional policy of military neutrality and confirms, in line with this policy:
that Ireland is not party to any mutual defence commitment;
that we are not party to any plans to develop a European army (not that the European Union has any such plans);
and that we will take our own sovereign decision on whether Irish troops should participate in humanitarian or crisis management tasks mounted by the EU, based on the triple lock of UN endorsement, Government decision and Dáil approval.
The National Declaration also makes clear that Ireland will not adopt any decision taken by the European Council to move to a common defence or ratify any future treaty which would involve a departure from our traditional policy of military neutrality unless it has first been approved by the Irish people in a referendum.
In response, the Heads of State and Government adopted a European Council Declaration confirming that:
the understandings contained in our National Declaration are shared by all 15 member-states;
Ireland's policy of military neutrality is in full conformity with the treaties, including the Treaty of Nice, and that there is no obligation on us arising from the treaties which would oblige us to depart from that policy.
These two declarations are a package and should be read together. The matters dealt with in the National Declaration are for sovereign decision by the Government and people of Ireland; the confirmations and clarifications set out in the European Council Declaration are proper to all 15 member-states.
Ireland proposed these declarations in response to the concerns of citizens in the course of the first Nice referendum.
I would like to emphasise that the texts of the declarations fully reflect the views expressed in the second report of the chairman of the National Forum on Europe.
There are those who may question the value of the Seville Declarations because they are essentially political texts. I would respond that all the legal guarantees we need are already in the Treaties.
We do not need legally binding opt-outs from obligations which do not exist.
The declarations will have a formal status and authority. Should the people decide that the State may ratify the Nice Treaty, our National Declaration will be lodged with our instrument of ratification and forwarded to the United Nations.
There are those who will say we should have a legal decision or a protocol like Denmark's. However, there is a big difference between the two situations. Denmark was seeking to opt-out of commitments which it had signed up to in the Maastricht Treaty. The Danes needed a legal instrument to do this. We are not seeking any opt-outs from the Nice Treaty, or any other EU treaties, since they pose no threat to our policy of military neutrality.
Successive Irish governments have negotiated successfully to make sure that this is the case. The purpose of the declarations is simply to demonstrate this beyond all reasonable doubt. We do not need a protocol. Our neutrality is fully protected under the treaties. The Seville Declarations make that clear.
In addition, the Danes did not get a protocol to the Maastricht Treaty; it was only four years later that they secured a protocol which was annexed to the subsequent treaty agreed in Amsterdam.
The reality is that there is nothing in the Nice Treaty which threatens our traditional policy of military neutrality and our policy is fully respected by the other member-states. As a consequence, none of our partners had any problem signing up to a declaration which makes this clear. Our EU partners respect the fact that Irish citizens have legitimate concerns that must be addressed and have repeatedly expressed their willingness to help us respond to those concerns. They have now done so in these declarations.
I believe passionately that the welfare and prosperity of the Irish people is best served by our participation as full and equal partners in the European Union. Our sovereignty is best defended by being at the table when decisions are being made that will affect our citizens and the world around us. The EU is about to be transformed by its biggest enlargement - to become a Union of up to 25 countries and 480 million people. This presents enormous opportunities from which the new Ireland is well placed to benefit.
It would be tragic if at this point in our history, Ireland were to choose to marginalise itself and obstruct the applicant countries from having the same opportunities that we had to develop and grow.
That is why the Government made the ratification of the Nice Treaty its number one priority. The Seville Declarations are a significant effort on our part, and on the part of our EU partners, to respond to some of the key concerns expressed in the course of the first referendum campaign.
I would encourage all citizens to read these declarations for themselves. It was our aim, and it is my hope, that the declarations will lay to rest, beyond reasonable doubt, the concerns about Ireland's neutrality.