Common security vital Bruton

The development of a common security policy in the EU is vital to guarantee the continuance of an effective world order, the leader of Fine Gael has told an audience in St Louis, Missouri.

However, addressing the Spring Ball Dinner of the Ireland Chamber of Commerce USA, Mr John Bruton warned that a united European front on foreign and security matters would not be a "utopian" arrangement.

Since the end of the second World War, he said, the US had taken on the dominant role which Britain filled prior to 1914.

The period since the war "has again been one in which one major power, the United States, has created an economic and political order and a network of world institutions which have enabled trade to grow rapidly and sustain huge increases in living standards for most of mankind".

But the events of 1914 should remind us that progress rested "on the maintenance of peace", which in turn rested on the existence of a power sufficiently strong to maintain or lead a global order. The US, with only 4 per cent of the world's population, could not be expected to carry the burden of leadership on its own forever.

"This is why I believe we need to develop a strong European Union, with a coherent foreign and security policy, that can work with the US and with international organisations to keep the peace of the world."