Ireland has been reinstated as an influential EU player on the basis of the saying that he who is not strong must be clever, writes Deaglán de Bréadún
The boys are back in town. Brian Cowen meets his European counterparts as part of the normal round of EU business in Luxembourg today and tomorrow, and both himself and Bertie Ahern will be at the EU summit in Brussels later in the week. Thanks to the electorate here, the summit will be a scene of huzzahs and backslapping with the faint pop of champagne corks in the background and there will be no need to say: "Sorry for your trouble." It has been, if not a famous victory, certainly a well-publicised one.
Unlike the last time, there is no wave of what the insiders call "bad ink" in the international media about the failings of the Irish people and their Government.
This time, Mr Cowen and his master can afford to relax and bask in the plaudits of their colleagues, some of whom may be privately relieved they did not have to put the Nice Treaty in the hands of their own voters.
Multiply that relief several times and you are close to the feelings of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs because the wide margin of victory belies the fact that it has been a difficult and hard-fought campaign.
The most immediate implication for the Government now is that two of its most prominent members have salvaged their political reputations. Despite indicating that, like Margaret Thatcher, he would go on and on, Mr Ahern's leadership would have been damaged, perhaps fatally, by a second No vote. Now he can claim to have kept his magic touch. Bertie is back on top, for the time being at least.
At an early stage of the campaign he indicated to friends in blunt language that he would be taking a robust and no-nonsense approach with the Fianna Fáil party, especially TDs, who were appointed directors of elections in their respective constituencies.
There would be no hiding-place this time around and, no doubt, constituency totals are already being perused to see who did the best job of getting the vote out.
Sources close to Cowen say the normally sanguine Minister was far from immune to anxiety last Friday as voting day loomed. The burly Offaly man was nervous as a kitten. The sudden departure of P.J. Mara as director of the Fianna Fáil campaign meant Cowen had to step into the breach. Happily for the Minister, the vote went the right way, relieving him of the unpleasant role of national and European scapegoat.
One of the mantras of the Yes campaign was to point out that Ireland "punches above its weight" in Europe but, like many clichés, it contains a kernel of truth. There is an old Irish saying that: "He who is not strong must be clever (An té nach bhfuil láidir ní foláir dó bheith glic)" and this lesson is burned into the consciousness of every Irish politician or civil servant who does business with Brussels.
Multilateral alliances are seen as the best method for a small state to advance its aims and it is known that Brian Cowen, for example, admires Luxembourg, an even smaller state, for the way it plays the Brussels game.
But, in this regard, international goodwill is crucial. Ireland had this in abundance prior to the first Nice referendum. We were seen as the white-haired boys and girls of the EU, who had used the largesse of Brussels effectively to build up our economy. We were a role-model to other small countries joining up. But our impressive stock of brownie points was jeopardised by the shock result of the first Nice poll last year and suddenly Ireland was standing in the corner wearing a dunce's cap.
All that is forgiven now in the flush of victory. Ireland is back in the charts and enlargement can now proceed according to the agreed timetable.
The 10 candidate countries are set fair to become full EU members on New Year's Day 2004, which coincidentally is the first day of Ireland's next European presidency.
Our Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, can expect to be centre-stage when a wrong result might have cost him his job.
There are important implications also for the way European issues are dealt with in the domestic political context. In the run-up to the referendum campaign, a senior civil servant said privately that, although he had been involved in the negotiations for Ireland's original entry to the European Economic Community, he had voted No in the first Nice referendum because of dissatisfaction with the attitude of the Government and the pro-Nice side generally. But in light of the efforts to address the people's concerns, he had changed his mind this time around.
While the No campaigners made light of the various measures to "alter the context" around Nice, significant steps have been taken to address the so-called democratic deficit. The Forum on Europe, though poorly served by most of the media, did make a genuine and largely successful effort to bring the debate to the people under the chairmanship of Senator Maurice Hayes. When you see civil servants rushing with portable microphones to give Sean or Sinead Citizen their say on Europe, then you know something is changing in our political culture. The forum's activities are set to continue.
Similarly, a number of quite substantial measures have been introduced to enhance parliamentary scrutiny of European issues, including question-and-answer sessions with ministers at the Select Committee on European Affairs prior to council meetings in Brussels. It is a test of our elected representatives to ensure these measures are made to work.
In addition, while the No side painted a somewhat lurid picture of Ireland rushing headlong into NATO's embrace if Nice was passed, nevertheless the neutrality issue has been highlighted in a manner unprecedented since the "Emergency" years of the second World War.
The Seville Declarations and even the new constitutional guarantee of a referendum before joining any European mutual defence pact have been dismissed as a "bottle of smoke" but it is clear that this and every future government will have to tread carefully on neutrality in future. The need for an honest and transparent debate about neutrality and Ireland's security in the modern world has never been more obvious.
The knock-on effects of the referendum result are many and various.
It could encourage less hesitation in the UK about having a poll on British membership of the euro single currency zone, for example. The hyper-federalist element in the Convention on the Future of Europe will have to think twice about their more adventurous proposals in view of the difficulty in getting the relatively modest contents of the Treaty of Nice approved by the Irish electorate.
Irish diplomats, especially those working in or with the applicant countries, can now breathe more easily. There will be a better welcome on the mat and the job of recruiting new allies will be that much easier.
At a Fine Gael press conference in the course of the campaign, the Leinster MEP Ms Avril Doyle made the very honest admission that: "We are reaping the rewards now for having sold the previous treaties on the basis of how much Ireland could get out of it financially." She continued: "We bought the votes down the years and didn't stop to tell them about the bigger project." There is no doubt that it was difficult asking people to vote this time on mainly idealistic and altruistic grounds.
The most important consequence of the 63 per cent majority Yes vote is that Ireland has averted the loss of moral capital that would have occurred if we were seen to turn our backs on Stalin's prison-house of nations.