Republican News · Thursday 3 April 2003

A vision of positive neutrality

Mary Lou MacDonald, recently selected as the Dublin candidate in the EU elections, introduced an important policy discussion document, Sinn Féin and the European Union, to the Ard Fheis. The document sets out the criteria for a policy of critical engagement at all levels with the EU to promote an EU of Equals.

Delegates stressed the importance of the issue: three quarters of our laws are now coming from the EU. The debate ranged widely over crucial issues of whether we want a federal state or to join the militarised state of the EU, the need to establish a position of constitutional neutrality, to address the democratic deficit within EU structures, to end the tie with Sterling.

The document represents a significant advance. Declan Kearney pointed out it is a policy framework towards the goals of economic sovereignty, which for us, as for Chavez or Lula in South America, is a battle on two fronts - an economic struggle and a political struggle, which can be won through political strength.

North Belfast Councillor Eoin Ó Broin praised the document and the political debate that had led up to it. He spoke of the need to develop political links with parties on the left in Europe, to challenge the democratic deficit within the EU structures, and the militarised superstate that the EU is fast becoming.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD pointed out how the Dublin government has repeatedly lied about neutrality. Cllr Larry O'Toole gave an impassioned speech detailing the horrors of the war in Iraq, of men, women and children dragged out of bombed-out buildings. "We don't see this on our screens covering the continuous bombing of the Iraqi people," he said. "We need to ask the TV companies why they are censoring what we see, disguising the dreadful reality of war."