Commitment to security in Europe urged by FG leader

Ireland can no longer "sit on the sidelines and let others take the decisions" about European security, the Fine Gael leader has told his party at a European election rally.

Mr John Bruton said that the issue of peace in Europe was too important to be left to others. By committing ourselves to European security, we could help guarantee our own peace and security, he said. "But if we do not commit ourselves, others will make the decisions and we may have to live, or die, with the results."

Ireland's current interpretation of neutrality meant we did not have an effective say in the issue at the moment, he added. "But we are not neutral about genocide and we are not neutral about ethnic cleansing".

About 1,000 party members attended the Dublin rally, which was attended by the party's seven

European candidates and featured addresses by a number of Fine Gael's allies in the European People's Party, including the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar.

The audience also heard Mr Bruton call for the setting up of a European Criminal Assets Bureau - similar to Ireland's - and a European Criminal Court. "I believe that the battle against organised crime should now be made the next big project for the European Union. Organised crime respects no boundaries and it is facilitated by the speed with which money can be moved across borders.

"The supply of illegal drugs is one of the main enterprises of modern crime, and it is an international enterprise. The response must be international, too."

Recalling Fine Gael's participation, while in Government, in the 1995 European presidency, Mr Bruton said the party's aims for Europe remained the same now as then: "peace, safe streets, secure jobs, and sound money."

Only the EU was big enough and strong enough to secure these aims, he added. "Big multinational companies, like Microsoft, now have stock values several times the size of the GDP of a country like Ireland. Only within the European Union can Ireland have the clout to get good things done, or wield the clout to stop bad things being done."

Mr Aznar told the audience that the EPP was determined to fight the socialist agenda in Europe, with its "high taxes, excessive regulations and interventionism". This was because "we believe that high taxes destroy companies, that regulations destroy employment and that interventionism undermines freedom and brings fraud and corruption".

The parties of the left governed most of the member-states and dominated the council, he said. "Our task is to secure a return of political balance within European institutions, beginning with the parliament in June, when we can become the strongest group in the new chamber."

The problems of Kosovo showed the need for a "new European dimension in security and defence," Mr Aznar continued. This and issues such as community enlargement and economic and social cohesion had to be dealt with "and when facing these issues the answer is not less Europe but more Europe," he said.

Other speakers at the rally included the president of the EPP and nine-times Belgian prime minister, Mr Wilfried Martens, and the leader of France's UDF party, Mr Francois Bayrou.