EU: The EU is now a global player which could not play its role in international security and conflict prevention from the sidelines, the Taoiseach has said.
Speaking at Magee College in Derry yesterday, Mr Ahern said the EU's new security strategy had set the context for the Union to take a more pro-active approach to security rather than the traditional reactive approach of the past.
Speaking on the theme "The European Union: A Force for Peace in the World", Mr Ahern made the case for Irish participation in EU security and greater EU involvement in global security and conflict prevention. He endorsed the Security Strategy and insisted it was "not about creating a military super-power. Nor is it a charter for military intervention or foreign adventures."
He said the European Security and Defence Policy was "fully consistent with Ireland's neutrality policy. Our policy has always expressed itself in support for conflict prevention and crisis management.
"The European Security and Defence Policy now allows us to play our true role in building peace in the world, hand in hand with our EU partners. It enables us to be far more active in areas which traditionally have been so central to our foreign policy."
He said Europe now had an important role to play in meeting new global challenges in the areas of international security and the prevention, management and resolution of conflict. Europe was in the process of changing and organising itself to play this role and could not do so "from the sidelines".
When the 10 new members joined in just under two months the EU would comprise over 450 million people, producing a quarter of the world's gross national product.
"It is nowhere preordained that international security and the lot of humanity will inevitably and continuously improve. It is up to each generation to engage with the wider world so as to help shape it for the better.
"This generation of Irish men and Irish women - this generation of Europeans - have an important role to play. We must all play our part."
He said that as the current holder of the EU presidency Ireland was "facilitating the dynamic to enhance the role of the EU as a force for peace".
The new European Security Strategy, agreed at a European Council meeting in Brussels last December, was "a comprehensive approach to security, going beyond purely military aspects. This is how it should be - security is everybody's business."
Ireland was now guiding the EU's first steps towards implementing the strategy, conducting work in four areas: effective multilateralism, the fight against terrorism, strengthening relations with the Middle East region and the Arab world, and developing a comprehensive strategy for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He said "effective multilateralism" meant getting the various international organisations to work more effectively together. "It is a recognition that global security can only be achieved through collective action by the international community as a whole."
In the Security Strategy, the EU makes it clear that the United Nations is the crucial organisation in this regard, he went on. The primary responsibility of the UN Security Council for international peace and security was clearly endorsed.
"As presidency, we wish to see the Union use its voice at the UN to better effect, and to contribute to the current process of UN reform."
In a reference to the divisions between the US and Europe over Iraq, he said these divisions had highlighted the need to develop a more effective multilateral international system.
"The challenges facing us cannot be resolved through unilateral action by any one country, or group of countries, no matter how large the resources or resolute the determination to go it alone," the Taoiseach said.
He quoted the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, who said a few years ago: "Challenges to peace and security today are predominantly global . . . They require complex and collective responses, which are possible only if the web of multilateral institutions is adequately developed and properly used."