The Government has been urged by the Fine Gael spokesman on foreign affairs to bring forward the date for joining Partnership for Peace (PFP).
Mr Gay Mitchell said that this would be an indication that the State was in earnest in taking part in selected peacemaking crisis management on a case by case basis. "This should be done in advance of the European elections so that those of us who support membership can take on those political charlatans who make outrageous and unsubstantiated claims about PFP membership."
He called on the Government to appoint Ireland's Brussels-based Ambassador to the Western European Union (WEU) as Ambassador to NATO also. "This will happen in any event after we join PFP. We should do so now, so that we have direct access to NATO's Secretary-General, Xavier Solana, to put Ireland's viewpoint directly to him. NATO is the only force capable of directly taking on Milosevic at this stage, and we must recognise this and have dialogue directly with it."
Mr Mitchell, who was speaking during a debate on the recent EU Council meeting in Berlin, said that Ireland was not neutral in the sense of the definition as contained in the fifth and 13th Hague Conventions of 1907. "These conventions require neutral states to deny assistance to all belligerents equally in times of conflict. It is clear that our neutrality does not measure up to this definition.
"We sat out the Bosnian crisis, despite repeated genocide, and the paralysis of the Government to date in the Yugoslav conflict seems to indicate that the Government intends to give a repeat performance, despite the recent lessons of Bosnia.