Question of military neutrality not an issue at this time, says Kohl

THE German Chancellor, Dr Kohl, has suggested that Ireland could wait for 10 or 20 years before considering the question of military neutrality.

He believed it was totally wrong "from a power politics point of view" to say that each EU member state had to have a Commissioner. He also expressed the view that European Monetary Union had to come.

The Chancellor suggested at a press conference in a Dublin hotel, that military neutrality was not an issue at this time. "Why don't you let matters take their own course?" he advised.

"Let us wait for another 10 to 20 years and this common European house has been refurbished and a fresh coat of paint has been added, and the Irish sit inside and look out the window all happy and content. Then we will face the questions as they are put then," he stated.

He said we should deal with the realities of the day and establish some sort of philosophical structure. We should first be phlegmatic and do practical things.

Posing the question of neutrality, he asked: "Neutrality against who, vis a vis who? While there are questions that have to be asked, we don't have to answer them immediately. Let us first introduce the Ecu, let us do the simple basic things that are necessary to lay the groundwork for Europe and then let us tackle the problems,", Dr Kohl said.

On the reform of EU institutions, Dr Kohl was asked how could he explain to a smaller state like Ireland that they may have to reduce the number of Commissioners. He replied that they would have to discuss that on Saturday.

On the proposal to appoint a secretary general to look after the EU's proposed common foreign policy, he said nobody should be under the illusion that a common foreign policy would automatically be established once they had a secretary general.

The issue of a single currency raised the question as to whether they wanted to be a free trade area or a European union in the fullest sense of the word. If they only looked at the economic advantages of customs, industry and exports, that was all they would see. When the first problem arrived, the whole thing would crumble, he said.