IRELAND:THE IRISH Government has to be given the time it needs by its EU partners to devise a considered response to the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, said yesterday during a visit to Dublin, writes Stephen CollinsPolitical Editor
"The most important thing is that the Irish Government have the space to do right by the Irish people. It is important for the European Union. We have always defended the unanimity rule on things like taxation and foreign policy, and obviously on institutional reform.
"When it comes to institutional reform the European Union is a union of equals; equal member states with equal power, and that is important," Mr Miliband said in an interview with The Irish Times.
"I said straight away there must be no bulldozing and no bullying of the Irish and I believe that very strongly. I think that has been respected around the European Union. The Irish Government has said they want to lead this process of reflection. It is in Irish hands and that is right."
Mr Miliband was dismissive of the intervention of the British Conservative Party, which welcomed the Irish No vote in June.
"It is ironic that William Hague should announce to the Irish people: 'Don't worry, the British cavalry are coming'. It is an interesting way to win friends and influence people. The Irish people are quite capable of finding their own way forward and they don't need the British Conservative Party to come and rescue them."
The foreign secretary said the implications of the Lisbon defeat were stark for the European Union. "If the Irish do not ratify Lisbon then Lisbon does not come into effect." He said there would still be unfinished institutional business to deal with.
"The Nice treaty left open the details of how the number of commissioners would be reduced, but that would become an issue if you had to live with Nice. So the implications of an Irish rejection are clear: Lisbon doesn't come into effect, but if it doesn't come into effect then Europe has to address some unfinished business."
Mr Miliband said the Irish Government had acted with real integrity and skill in ensuring that no one in Europe was in any doubt that the decision of the Irish voters must be respected and, secondly, in taking the lead in addressing the consequences of the decision.
Commenting on the opinion poll research commissioned by the Government, he said it was striking that the EU remained popular in Ireland and also striking that 42 per cent of people who voted No didn't know what the treaty was about. He suggested the No vote had created an opportunity to clarify the modern purpose of the EU.
Mr Miliband said that for his parents' generation the purpose of the EU was obvious: to build economic and political ties to prevent war. For the generation of the 1970s and 1980s it was to develop the internal market and social standards that embodied the standards of the European social market economy.
"I think the purpose of the EU is as clear today, but it is different. It is to address the risks and insecurities that face Europeans beyond our borders. We have got to complete the project of single market reform, budgetary reform, etc, but the new threats are global threats.
"They are economic insecurity, they are climate change. They are energy insecurity, they are political instability on our borders. Hence the importance of Kosovo and the western Balkans issue.
"In those issues you see the second wing of the European aeroplane. The first wing is the model of social, economic and environmental standards within our own borders, and the second wing is the external role. In the modern world if you don't have the second role you are not going to address the insecurities. So I think the opportunity for ourselves is to clarify for ourselves and the people of Europe the modern role of the European union."
Asked whether he thought Scotland was moving towards independence, he said: "I hope not. I know there is an unholy alliance between Alex Salmond and David Cameron, with Salmond banking on a Tory government to then appeal to a Scottish sense of victimisation from the Tories to get them out of the UK."
Mr Miliband was emphatic that Gordon Brown will lead the Labour Party into the next British election, and was dismissive of polls indicating that the Conservatives may do what Tony Blair and Labour did in 1997 - win it.