EU poll wording would give Government freer hand

The Government's proposal for the constitutional referendum on the Amsterdam Treaty would allow it to make some future EU commitments without consulting the electorate. The proposal is in a "guideline note" on the wording of the constitutional amendment which has been circulated to a handful of people by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.

Marked "confidential", the document says the thrust of the amendment is to provide specifically for ratification of the Amsterdam Treaty. However, in a controversial move to circumvent future referendums, the Government is proposing that the amendment will authorise the State "to take every option and to exercise every discretion provided by the European Communities, European Union and Amsterdam Treaties".

Technically, this would pave the legal way for the Government to make further security and defence commitments within the EU, even though successive governments have promised to hold a referendum if there is a proposal to change the Republic's policy of military neutrality.

In the guideline note, the Taoiseach's Office says "the discretion provision" is necessary to allow for participation in the discretionary (non-mandatory) obligations under the treaty. "Without such a provision there is a real risk that the Supreme Court would hold that the State was not authorised to undertake the discretionary obligations under the Treaty of Amsterdam," it states.

The note points out that discretionary obligations may be undertaken pursuant, in particular, to the treaty's provisions on closer co-operation (flexibility); police and judicial co-operation; and free movement. It adds that Ireland and the UK would retain the right to opt in to all or part of the Schengen Agreement, which is to be brought within the framework of the EU treaties.

The Government's proposed wording for the referendum is expected to raise controversy within the anti-EU lobby, because it is noticeably different from the referendums on the Single European Act in 1987 and the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. In those referendums the constitutional amendments proposed straightforward ratifications of the Act and treaty.