The European Union was the most successful institutionalised example of conflict prevention in history, the EU's External Relations Commissioner, Mr Chris Patten, told the Forum on Europe in Dublin Castle yesterday.
But until the Balkans conflict, political co-operation on foreign policy was limited to communiqués which were usually too late and employed "strong nouns and rather weak verbs".
Progress in developing a Common Foreign and Security Policy had inevitably been "lumpy and uneven". But if Europe could "get its act together" it could help prevent the world descending into anarchy. The EU needed Irish "know-how and sense of moral purpose".
Mr Patten rejected the notion that the EU's Rapid Reaction Force would be an agent of multinational companies.
On the Nice Treaty he denied "threatening or hectoring" the Irish electorate into voting Yes, saying: "You are entitled to vote exactly as you wish." He denied any suggestion that he was "a bullying Brit". He could not divide his position as European Commissioner from the rest of his personality.
Prof John Maguire of University College Cork said the Petersberg Tasks, which will form the basis for the operations of the Rapid Reaction Force, were "disturbingly open-ended".
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, put it to Prof Maguire that participating in RRF operations was a decision in each case for the Government.
Prof Maguire said he conceded this was true but he had no confidence in the Government to invoke the opt-out clause.
The forum was adjourned until February 28th in Galway. Its website is www.forumoneurope.ie