EU missions boosted by two Irish experts

IRISH PERSONNEL will join EU missions in Afghanistan and the Middle East this month as part of the State’s peacekeeping contribution, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has announced.

A “rule of law” expert will serve with the EU’s police assistance mission in Afghanistan and a human rights expert will serve with the EU police mission in the West Bank later this month.

Mr Martin said Irish efforts to support peace had broadened beyond purely military. “This is nowhere more evident than in our EU missions, which have an overwhelmingly civilian emphasis. There have been twice as many European civilian missions as military missions,” he said.

Military support had been supplemented by new skills, including the deployment of the two Irish experts to Afghanistan and the West Bank, and the contribution of experts in areas such as monitoring the ceasefire and leading confidence-building initiatives between the two sides in Georgia. Mr Martin also pointed to An Garda’s Síochána’s contribution to EU missions in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

“These members of the gardaí and other Irish civilian experts continue to serve the cause of international peace and security in some of the most dangerous parts of the world,” he said.

Paying tribute to Ireland’s professional peacekeepers across the globe, he said their work had radically changed from the static observation posts of Lebanon to mobile quick-reaction forces protecting refugees in Chad.

He said the Lisbon Treaty reiterates that the EU’s action internationally, “will respect the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law”.