NEVILLE KEERY,
Madam, - Too much importance has been given in the referendum debate to matters that have little to do with the everyday realities of the European Union.
A lot of heat is generated about voting strengths in the Council of Ministers. The fact is that voting is rare and and most matters are dealt with by consensus.
How is that? Quite simple. The EU works like that because it is a partnership committed to a common interest in peace and prosperity. The notions of big countries ganging up against the small and of a drive towards a European army into which the youth of the EU will be conscripted are figments of the imagination.
By definition, the working of EU institutions restricts the larger countries more than the smaller. If the EU partnership did not exist, the larger countries - left to their own devices - could do what they liked, in ways which might not be in the interest of smaller countries. A common market and community solidarity is in everyone's interest and all the members recognise that they can do better together than they could alone.
Of course the EU is keen to enlarge and and to take on responsibility for foreign and security policy. How much safer today's world would be if Europe could provide real alternatives to US positions. In areas of globalisation - particularly those affecting the environment - the EU already defends a much more progressive position than the US.
Stronger security does not mean the possibility of army conscription. Conscription is disappearing throughout Europe and, in any case, could never be other than a national responsibility.
And what is this nonsense about countries coming into the EU being somehow second-class? The continuing EU development is a dynamic process and the institutions and policies Ireland accepted in 1972 were quite different to those at the time the European Coal and Steel Community was launched. Creating the Coal and Steel Community was about making war impossible. A number of enlargements have been specifically about underpinning democracy in Europe - Greece after the colonels, Spain and Portugal after dictatorships. Now we must help the countries of Central Europe to put their pasts of Communist leadership behind them forever.
It is not at all unreasonable for the Irish people to be asked by the great majority of their political leaders - Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Progressive Democrats - to vote again. Social issues such as abortion and divorce have been voted on more than once over longer intervals to test the evolution of public opinion. The Nice Treaty vote is a political matter that has to be dealt with in the context of a negotiating timetable agreed for EU enlargement, a process which the No campaign claims to support.
Thanks to the efforts of an enormous number of interested volunteers, the first-class literature produced by the Referendum Commission, and the space given to all the campaign activity by the media, it is certain that on October 19th the electorate will be much more informed than previously.
I am voting Yes because the dynamic of the EU process has served us all well and should be open to as many people in Europe as possible. - Yours, etc.,
NEVILLE KEERY,
Carysfort Park,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
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Madam, - It has come to our attention that some proponents of the No vote in the Nice Treaty Referendum campaign are promoting the idea that rejection of the treaty is in the interest of the candidate countries. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Our countries are among the 10 that the European Commission has declared in its report issued on October 9th fulfil the criteria for membership and which will be ready to join the European Union from the beginning of 2004. For several years, our governments have been engaged in intensive negotiations with the member-states, including Ireland, on the terms of our accession and have been working hard to prepare for it. The people and governments of our countries are keenly looking forward to being full and equal partners in an enlarged Union.
Our people see Ireland as a country that accommodated benefits stemming from EU membership with great success. We fully respect the sovereign right of the Irish people to make their own decision on The Nice Treaty. However, we take exception to the obvious tactic of some No campaigners who seek to present themselves as our protectors to justify blocking ratification. These individuals or groups in no way represent our interests or speak on our behalf. Far from doing us a favour, they are in fact doing our countries and people a disservice.
We wish to reiterate the central importance of the Nice Treaty for the accession process, which will enable all of us to meet in the Union in January 2004. We look on Ireland as a role model and wish only to be given the same opportunity to benefit from, as well as contribute to, the building of a united, peaceful and prosperous Europe.
EU enlargement is not just a historic opportunity for the candidate countries but also for the existing member-states. - Yours, etc.,
ANDREAS KAKOURIS,
Ambassador of the
Republic of Cyprus;
PETR KOLÁØ,
Ambassador of the
Czech Republic;
KRISTA KILVET,
Chargé d'Affaires,
Republic of Estonia;
GÉZA PÁLMAI,
Ambassador of the
Republic of Hungary;
WITOLD SOBKÓW,
Ambassador of the
Republic of Poland;
VLADIMIR HALGA,
Ambassador of the
Slovak Republic;
HELENA DRNOVEK
ZORKO,
Ambassador of the
Republic of Slovenia.
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Madam, - The Fianna Fáil Minister for Health and Children, Brian Lenihan, is reported by you as saying it was "patently ridiculous" to claim that the Nice Treaty undermined Irish neutrality (The Irish Times, October 9th). This, however, has not stopped the Government from confusing the issue further by proposing to insert a new clause on neutrality into the Irish Constitution.
If the need for this new clause is "patently ridiculous", is it not more ridiculous to offer it as a solution to a non-existent problem? On the other hand, if this "neutrality" clause is of any value, why tie it to the vote on the Nice Treaty? Why are we not allowed to vote on it as an item independently of the treaty?
Perhaps the Government's true opinion of the validity of this new clause as a defence against EU decisions can be understood when we see that Article 29 in our Constitution contains the following clause: "No provision of this \) Constitution. . .prevents laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the European Union or by the Communities or by institutions thereof, or by bodies competent under the Treaties establishing the Communities, from having the force of law in the \ State". Have we reached a new low in political cynicism? - Yours, etc.,
DICK HUMPHREYS,
Sycamore Road,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.
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Madam, - Dr Ben Tonra (October 7th) doesn't appear to understand that my concern (Opinion, October 2nd) is about the direction in which the EU is heading via the Nice Treaty, as much as the treaty itself.
I'm not particularly preoccupied with narrow legal niceties. Dr Tonra might care, however, to advise the Government to correct references to the "new standing Political and Security Committee" in its July 2002 edition of the White Paper on the Treaty of Nice (pages 59 and 60).
This treaty, like its predecessors, is but another step in the continuing evolution of the EU. The European Rapid Reaction Force, foreshadowed in the Amsterdam Treaty and initiated in November 2000, is being brought under direct EU political control through Nice. The Nice Presidency report, which accompanied the treaty, refers to the development of "a permanent and effective relationship between" NATO and the EU.
As to enlargement, a select, comparatively wealthy group of eight former "Iron Curtain" countries, with a market economy, are among the 10 foremost applicants. Poorer countries such as Moldova, Ukraine, Albania and Bosnia are to be firmly excluded by "Fortress Europe" through tighter policing, aided by newly constructed watchtowers, along the enlarged EU's eastern border.
Not, to my mind, the best way of reuniting our historically divided Eastern and Western Europe. - Yours, etc.,
COLM RODDY,
Bayside Walk,
Dublin 13.
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Madam, - The vast majority of Irish people have played team sports at some stage in their lives and I wonder how they would feel if one member of their team refused to play ball with the other 14. - Yours, etc.,
TICE McNAMARA,
Chestnut Park,
Viewmount,
Waterford.