It was the failure of the EU to take effective action or agree a common position throughout the war in former Yugoslavia, more than any other event, which persuaded member-states that the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy needed to be made much more effective and coherent.
Yet the changes proposed in the Amsterdam Treaty are generally modest rather than radical. However the new security and defence provisions seem set to dominate debate on the treaty in Ireland.
The new treaty allows for "the progressive framing of a common defence policy . . . which might lead to a common defence should the European Council so decide". It also says the Union will "foster closer institutional relations with the WEU [the Western European Union, the European arm of NATO] with a view to the possibility of the integration of the WEU into the Union, should the European Council so decide." The White Paper says these two developments - which would represent a major shift of the EU towards a defence union - are still referred to in the language of possibility and are conditional.
The European Council could decide on a common defence only by unanimity, it says, so Ireland therefore has a veto. The White Paper also says that any decision to merge the EU and WEU would require major changes to the EU treaties, and therefore another Inter-Governmental Conference. In addition the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, has said that any government in which Fianna Fail participates would put any such proposal to a referendum before agreeing to it.
However, opponents of the treaty say it is theoretically possible that a future government could renege on this commitment and agree to a common defence without a referendum. Those opposing the treaty highlighted this point yesterday in the light of the Government's proposed referendum wording, reported in this newspaper last week. This would not just ratify the treaty, but authorise the State "to take every option and every discretion provided by the European Communities, European Union and Amsterdam Treaties." Mr Andrews yesterday confirmed to reporters the accuracy of this report, saying: "At the moment that is the wording." Government sources say that this wording was drafted in the Attorney General's office to allow the State to opt into provisions such as those on freedom of movement in the future without the necessity of a referendum.
But according to the chairman of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, Mr Roger Cole, "technically this would pave the legal way for the Government to make further security and defence commitments within the EU." The changing relationship between the EU and WEU is also a central part of the argument of those opposing the treaty. The Maastricht Treaty described the Western European Union (WEU) as "an integral part of the development of the Union". The new treaty would allow the EU to use the WEU to carry out humanitarian and peacekeeping as well as militarily combative "peacemaking" actions. These actions are known as the "Petersberg tasks" in which all member-states would be entitled, but not obliged, to participate.
The proposal of some memberstates to have the WEU merge with the EU has not been adopted. Instead, the idea is written into the treaty as a possibility, while the fostering of closer relations between the two bodies has been agreed.
There is to be a greater use of qualified majority voting in some foreign policy decisions. However it will still remain possible for a single member-state to block any decision. A new concept of "constructive abstention" is to be introduced, allowing a State to opt out of a particular decision or action, while allowing other memberstates to go ahead with it.
The treaty also provides for cooperation between those memberstates who wish to co-operate on armaments. "The progressive framing of a common defence policy will be supported, as memberstates consider appropriate, by cooperation between them in the field of armaments", the treaty says.
There is a safeguard written into the treaty concerning Ireland's traditional position on military neutrality: "The policy of the Union in accordance with this article shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain memberstates", it says.
There are also new provisions on the negotiation of international agreements between the EU and others and an enhanced role in external relations for the Secretary General of the European Council. The EU's "Troika", consisting of the presidency, the previous presidency and the immediately following one is also to be revised, with the immediately previous presidency being dropped from the group which carries on EU external relations.