Madam, - Tony Brown (February 21st) claims that in relation to EU military policy I "imply bad faith on the part of our EU partners". I do not. However, unlike Mr Brown and Proinsias De Rossa (Opinion, February 11th), I do not automatically assume good faith either.
Have European governments in the past always acted in the best interests of people in other parts of the world? If the answer is no, then why should we naïvely expect their behaviour to differ in the future? Mr De Rossa refers to the new EU Constitution's support for "human dignity, liberty, democracy" and other laudable values. The problem is that while such values are rarely publicly repudiated, they are often violated in practice. A policy does not become good because its practitioners proclaim it to be good.
George W. Bush proclaims his commitment to liberty, but I doubt Proinsias De Rossa or Tony Brown feel that commitment to be fully honoured in US foreign policy.
The difference between theory and practice may be illustrated by means of a non-military example. Mr De Rossa cites the EU's commitment to "the eradication of poverty in the world". But do all the EU's trade policies, for example, contribute to that goal? Mr De Rossa refers to the apparent failures of neo-liberal economics, yet the EU is pursuing essentially neo-liberal trade policies through forums such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services and economic partnership agreements, with potentially devastating consequences for people in developing countries.
The concerns of European business for market access are being placed above the development concerns of poorer economies. If this disjunction between theory (poverty eradication) and practice (opening up markets for European corporations) can arise in one area of policy (in this case, trade), could it not also arise in the case of military policy?
To repeat, I am not arguing that the EU is a force for evil. What I am arguing is that fine words do not guarantee fine policies, and we must not suspend our critical faculties when looking at military or any other area of EU activity. - Yours, etc.,
ANDY STOREY, UCD, Dublin 4.