The Government has been accused by the Dublin Green Party MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, of jeopardising Ireland's neutrality.
She said that before the 1997 general election the Taoiseach had stated as Fianna Fail leader that any attempt to join Partnership for Peace (PfP) without a referendum would represent a serious breach of faith and be fundamentally undemocratic. "Now he has the gall to push for us to join NATO's PfP without a referendum."
Ms McKenna described as "completely bizarre" Mr Ahern's claim that the European elections in June would offer a mandate to join PfP before the autumn. "If Mr Ahern thinks that electing the Irish members of the European Parliament is equivalent to a referendum on joining NATO's PfP, not only has he a very strange idea of democracy, but he is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the Irish people.
"It is outrageous that a Fianna Fail-led Government would dare jeopardise our neutrality like this. I'm sure this is not what the grassroots members of Fianna Fail want. Joining the PfP is merely a stepping stone to a full NATO membership. Even President Clinton has said that PfP membership is `a path to full NATO membership for some and a strong lasting link to the alliance for all'."
Speaking at the party's annual conference in Greystones, Co Wicklow, on Saturday, Ms McKenna said that unlike most Irish political parties, the Greens rejected any links with NATO and opposed not just NATO enlargement but NATO itself. "The PfP is a misnomer, as its hidden agenda is not to secure peace but to boost the arms industry as NATO tries to expand east wards."
The Leinster MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, said human life was on the line in Kosovo. "It is now clear that NATO does not really care about protecting the Kosovars. If they were, they would have concentrated their activity in Kosovo from the start and thrown a cordon around Kosovo. Instead, it is more interested in using its stock of arms in Yugoslavia itself, while allowing the situation to get to crisis proportions."
Reiterating the party's call for the abolition of Third World debt, the Dublin South East TD, Mr John Gormley, said the Greens favoured a market economy which was not centrally planned by governments or corporations and which must be regulated if it was to properly serve human needs and be ecologically sustainable.
On the North, he said the party wished the Government well in the difficult negotiations taking place.
"We know and appreciate the difficulties which republicans have with the concept of decommissioning. In the tribal atmosphere of Northern politics, symbols and gestures take on new and often unforeseen meanings. But we ask the republican movement to consider this: if a decommissioning gesture means defeat, if even saying the war is over means defeat, does your failure to co-operate in any way on this issue mean victory, especially if it leads back to war?
"Surely a return to war means defeat for everyone on this island? It is our hope that as a result of that agreement we will see more integrated education in Northern Ireland and indeed here in the Republic."
