The full text of article of the Amsterdam Treaty, J7 (1), about which Mr John Gormley complained yesterday is as follows:
"The policy of the Union in accordance with this Article shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States and shall respect the obligations of certain Member States, which see their common defence realised in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), under the North Atlantic Treaty and be compatible with the common security and defence policy established within that framework."
A very similar wording appeared in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. The wording arose from the anxiety of a number of member-states to ensure that the EU did not take on a defence character.
Two groups of member-states formed an alliance of convenience during the Amsterdam negotiations to ensure this did not happen. The first group comprises the neutral and non-aligned states including Ireland. The second comprises the Atlanticists - those who want European security to be conducted with US involvement and through NATO only, and are fearful that any movement of the EU towards becoming a defence union would undermine that aspiration.
These two groups, acting together, won the day at Maastricht and again at Amsterdam. The resultant Article J7 (1) of the Amsterdam Treaty reflects the fact that the two groups are coming from very different points of view.
The first part of the sentence is there for the neutrals and non-aligned states. It says: "The policy of the Union in accordance with this Article shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States". In other words, the Union's common foreign and security policy cannot override the wishes of Ireland, Austria, Sweden and Finland to retain a policy of remaining neutral or non-aligned.
The second part of the sentence is there for the Atlanticists - particularly the UK and Denmark - who want their common defence to be conducted through NATO only. It says that the common foreign and security policy of the EU "shall respect the obligations of certain Member States, which see their common defence realised in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), under the North Atlantic Treaty and be compatible with the common security and defence policy established within that framework."
In other words, it states that the EU's common foreign and security policy can neither undermine the neutral or nonaligned status of Ireland, Sweden, Austria and Finland, nor compromise Britain's and Denmark's commitments to NATO.
Mr Gormley says his party believes that the Amsterdam Treaty will bring about a common European defence policy. However, those who do not share this perspective point out that the Maastricht Treaty already commits the EU to "the eventual framing of a common defence policy"; the Amsterdam Treaty, using almost identical language, commits it to "the progressive framing of a common defence policy".