Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

Ahern's neutrality pledge is not enough

BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN

Nice II is coming to a ballot box near you this autumn if Fianna Fáil returns to power. Dublin government leader Bertie Ahern made this commitment at the EU Barcelona summit last week.

In order to smooth through a re-run of the Nice Treaty referendum, Ahern has sought a declaration from the other 14 EU member states that Irish military neutrality will not be affected by the Nice Treaty.

The purpose of the declaration was to reassure Irish voters and, "remove any doubt that Irish military neutrality is in any way affected by the Nice Treaty".

Ahern was not prepared to actually propose an amendment to the 26-County Constitution that would put the commitment to neutrality firmly in it. His reasoning for this was that "the popular view is that you shouldn't put anything in the Constitution".

How he came to this startling analysis is not quite clear but falls way short of the neutrality protocol sought by the No to Nice campaign during the last referendum. The Ahern declaration doesn't deal, for example, with the issue of costs of possible EU army military campaigns that could still be borne by the Irish taxpayer.

Even more interesting than Ahern's promise of a neutrality declaration was the reaction of Fine Gael and Labour, two political parties who opposed the Nice Treaty in December 2000 but supported it in June 2001. Now, with a new year, there is a new position.

Fine Gael believes it is "too little too late". Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jim O'Keefe said that, "the concerns voiced by the Irish people about Nice went beyond the issue of neutrality". Labour's Ruairi Quinn called for "public discussion and comment" on the proposed declaration.

Given that both these parties went along with the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat Coalition's attempt to steamroll Nice through the electorate last June, what are they proposing will be any different this time around?

Now, Fine Gael and Labour are worried about the democratic accountability within the EU. Quinn said: "There is no accountability to the Irish people or their parliament for decisions taken by Irish ministers in Europe." So does this mean that Labour and Fine Gael are now back on the No side of the Nice debate?

What chances of this new found understanding lasting very long in either party after the coming Leinster House elections?