JANE O'MAHONY,
Sir, - I read Breda O'Brien's column last Saturday with great interest. I am glad she acknowledges that "voting against an entire treaty is quite a drastic step". What is remarkable about this piece is that enlargement seems to deserve no more than a passing reference as follows: "Enlargement can go ahead".
Ms O'Brien does not say how this can happen from a constitutional, legal and institutional perspective. If Ireland votes No there will be a crisis in the enlargement negotiations that are due to end in December; and given that 14 member-states have ratified Nice, we will be the cause of the difficulties and delay if we vote against. The countries of east and central Europe should not be kept waiting by us, given their difficult history since the second World War.
As Ms O'Brien points out, EU membership has brought us a lot of good and we should not stand in the way of giving the candidate countries similar opportunities.
I was also concerned to hear Ms O'Brien resort to talking of "the development of a Union of schoolyard bullies". The Treaty of Nice was ratified by the parliaments of each member-state, all democratically elected. The Convention on the Future of Europe is the first step in a process of wide consultation by the institutions of the EU and the member-states on the future direction of the Union. Her reference to "schoolyard bullies" signals her underlying antipathy towards the EU and her reluctance to acknowledge the historic opportunity it now faces with enlargement and reform. - Yours, etc.,
JANE O'MAHONY,
Oakley Road
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
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Sir, - The Irish Free State was born into poverty. Despite achieving political independence in 1922, for 40 years thereafter Ireland was almost totally dependent economically on Britain. With virtually no industrial base and practically all economic activity in low productivity agriculture and services, Irish living standards were set by the prices the British were prepared to pay for live store cattle. The cheap food policies of successive British governments and the strong British commitments to their Commonwealth partners weakened the position of the Irish authorities in trade negotiations from 1938 on. This poor environment provided a strong motive for joining the EEC in 1973.
The substantial benefits of EU membership show in the improvements in our cities and towns, in rural areas, and in the ongoing development of transport and other infrastructures.
We have penetrated deeply into European markets, created a welcoming climate for foreign investors in high-tech industries and services, rationalised our agriculture and set in place the apparatus to educate and train our young and growing workforce. In the process, our wider role as participants in European development has enabled us to escape from the constraining shadow that our neighbouring island cast over us for much of our history.
We have also profited from the large body of EU legislation aimed both at opening up the Single European Market (e.g. laws on standards, on competition, on public procurement) and at protecting the environment.
An important aspect of our success in Europe has been our membership of the Council of Ministers, which decides on all EU Commission proposals for legislation and on the annual negotiations on policies such as the levels of CAP support for farmers. Moreover, as a small State, we have a weight in the voting on those proposals far in excess of our size. Our elected members of the European Parliament also play their roles in examining proposals for legislation and the implementation of EU policy and laws by the Commission.
Since 1973, the Irish have been regarded as good Europeans who shared in the vision of the founding fathers of the Union to create and strengthen a peaceful Europe We have become one of the richest countries in the world thanks, in part, to the generosity and spirit of solidarity of our EU partners. We are now asked to join in further strengthening the Union through a new expansion to include former Soviet Bloc countries, some of which are at stages of development similar to ours 30 years ago.
A main purpose of the Nice Treaty is to provide an institutional framework that will enable the Union to cope with its enlargement in the years ahead.
There are of course other political issues involved in the Treaty and the final text represents a difficult compromise between different national and sectional interests, including our own. We will want to participate actively in further negotiation on these and other points in the forthcoming re-examination of the treaties. To exert our full influence in these negotiations, we need to be a willing partner in a Union that has served us well.
It would be the height of folly to revert to a negative insularity, bordering on Euro-scepticism, that would risk throwing overboard all the gains in international prestige and goodwill we have achieved over the past 30 years. - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN McNAMARA,
Beaumont Gardens,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.