DEBATE ON THE NICE TREATY

JOHN MAGUIRE,

JOHN MAGUIRE,

Sir, - At the EU summit in Seville, the Government is seeking declarations about Ireland's position within emerging EU military structures. These declarations, apparently designed to allay our concerns about the military aspects of the Nice Treaty, in fact only sharpen them.

Our concerns relate to maintaining our fundamental commitments to peaceful conflict resolution, to peacekeeping under direct UN authority, and to direct UN control over any necessary use of force. The evolution of the European Rapid Reaction Force has undermined all these commitments, as I argue in my book Defending Peace: Ireland's Role in a Changing Europe (to be published on September 2nd by Cork University Press).

That this is so is proved by the very fact of seeking two distinct declarations. Direct, explicit UN authority is not written into the EU text, any more than is our principle of parliamentary control over acts of war.

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The proposed EU declaration will not rectify these defects, but will simply make the unsustainable claim that the ERRF does not compromise Ireland's foreign policy principles. Our making a separate declaration to uphold principles which we have failed to urge on our EU colleagues is an admission of the hollowness of our much-vaunted "influence" in this area, and has no more legal force than the Taoiseach's broken promise to hold a referendum over NATO/PfP.

So, we are asking the EU to declare that its military policy doesn't do "exactly what it says on the tin", and linking that with an Irish Government declaration that, like its predecessors, is "made to disappear". - Yours, etc.,

JOHN MAGUIRE, Red Abbey Street, Cork.

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Sir, - To enlighten Sé D'Alton (June 15th), may I point out that the purpose of my letter of June 13th was not to "equate" two impossibilities, but to compare two attitudes - that of anti-Nice Treaty politicians in 2001-02 and a certain moral attitude in Ireland in the 1950s.

If the Nice Treaty is "dustbinned" - this scornful term reveals his attitude to the most important European initiative since 1973 - Mr D'Alton argues that the enlargement of the EU is still "legally" possible. How? - Yours, etc.,

CORNELIUS O'LEARY, Emeritus Professor, Queen's University, Belfast.

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Sir, - What would actually happen if Ireland rejected the Nice Treaty again? Also, what would actually happen if Ireland accepted the Treaty? My own conjecture is that, irrespective of how we will vote, Ireland will be marginalised. I suggest that if we vote Yes, the rate at which we will be forced to beg for crumbs will be slower than if we vote No, but in five to ten years the end result will be the same.

Our impotence will arise from a combination of big state self-interest and bureaucratic indifference, but most of our élites will be well looked after. - Yours, etc.,

PATRICK GRANT, Blessington Place, Dublin 7.

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Sir, - It was interesting to read Martin Mansergh's association of Irish democrats' opposition to forcing the Irish people to vote again on exactly the same Nice Treaty they rejected a year ago with the "populism of Haider and Le Pen" (June 14th).

Perhaps he should discuss the issue with Mr Noel O'Flynn? - Yours, etc.,

ROGER COLE, Peace and Neutrality Alliance, Blackrock, Co Dublin.