Goodwill and influence within Europe are among the reasons why Ireland should vote Yes to Nice, according to former Minister and EU Commissioner, Pádraig Flynn.
Mr Flynn speaking on Mid-West Radio News last night said that a Common EU Defence Policy is likely in the future, but any such policy would have to go before the Irish people before it could be accepted or rejected. Mr Flynn conceded that it was unusual for any country to put the exact same treaty that was rejected by the electorate over a year ago, back before the people and expect them to say Yes on a second occasion. "Nonetheless it is vitally important that Ireland ratifies the treaty on this occasion. The last time out, people did not have sufficient information but this time round the information is there", he claims.
"It's all about influence and goodwill in Europe and there is enormous goodwill for Ireland already there and that has been proved on more than one occasion. I can give you some examples, take the foot-and-mouth problem that we had. The EU treated the Cooley peninsula as a region, separate from the rest of Ireland. But for goodwill and influence, it could have regarded the whole of Ireland as being locked out."
A lot of money had come to Ireland over the years through structural funds, be it regional, social or cohesion funds he said. "We did better out of these funds than any other eligible state. In fact, we often had four times the multiple than any other state achieved and that was done by the goodwill that existed for a small open economy."
Mr Flynn said he believed an EU Common Defence Policy was possible but Ireland would maintain it's veto so any new policy would have to go before the people in a referendum.
"Everyone is talking about the Common Foreign Security Policy, but that is already agreed in the former treaties. A Political and Security Committee was set up in 2001 and we have a seat on that and that seat will be made permanent under the Nice Treaty."