Nice no threat to neutraility, Cowen tells Dail

The Nice Treaty poses no threat to military neutrality and should not be feared by Irish voters, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen told a specially convened Dáil debate on the upcoming referendum this afternoon.

Mr Cowan said during the first Nice Referendum the Government had insisted the Nice Treaty would not threaten Irish neutrality despite claims to the contrary from the No side.

Since then, the Taoiseach has secured agreement at the Seville European Council on two declarations setting "out an agreed interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Treaties", Mr Cowen said.

The Seville Declaration recognises that Ireland will not participate in a common defence arrangement without the approval of the Irish people in a referendum, he said.

Every single person in this country is directly affected by our membership of the EU Mr Brian Cowen

The Minister said ratifying the Treaty would promote jobs and trade because "every single person in this country is directly affected by our membership of the EU, whether as a worker, an employer, a farmer, a trade unionist, a parent or a consumer".

Rejecting the Treaty a second time would "damage the EU, the candidate countries, and our own interests. We would lose friends and influence, in Brussels and across Europe," warned Mr Cowen.

He also conceded that political parties had failed to energise the public in the first Nice referendum with the result that turnout was 35 per cent.

However, Mr John Gormley of the Green Party rejected the Minister's view and said the Treaty was "very bad for Ireland and very bad for Europe". He said Government claims that the people did not know what they were voting for was patronising the voters.

"We are told [the Government] has listened to the people and the context has changed ... [but] not one iota of this Treaty has been changed".

Mr Gormley rejected suggestions that the "Seville Declaration can protect Irish neutrality because there is no neutrality to protect".

"After the Amsterdam Treaty and the Partnership for Peace Ireland was no longer neutral but simply non-aligned. Nato now refers to us as one of the `former neutrals'".

He added that the Nice Treaty creates a new military and security committee. "Ireland has officers working at the highest level of the new EU rapid reaction force. Will we ask them to withdraw if we don't have a UN mandate? ... that simply is not going to happen."

Mr Gormley said the aim of the EU, is over time, to create a military force to rival that of the US and an arms industry that can compete with the US. An EU military tax to pay for this has already been suggested by the Belgian finance minister, Mr Gormley said.

He said the Nice Treaty in its current form was an example of "creeping federalism", moving towards a superstate model. "Most of the 107 pages of my copy of the Treaty have nothing to do with enlargement and everything to do with further integration".

Mr Gormley said enlargement of the EU can progress without Nice, via the Amsterdam Treaty. "That has been confirmed by [the European Commission President], Mr Romano Prodi and Mr Giscard D'Estaing [chairman of the Convention on the Future of Europe] and indeed my constituency colleague Mr Michael McDowell."

The Labour Party leader Mr Ruairi Quinn said at the heart of the debate was the issue of national sovereignty. "Pooling of sovereignty to bind countries together as well as to solve cross-frontier problems has been one of the most successful innovation of a European Continent bedeviled by war for over three hundred years".

Wait in the long grass and deliver your retribution to Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats where it hurts - in 20 months time in European Parliament seat local authority seats. Mr Ruairi Quinn

Mr Quinn said he would recommend ratification of the Treaty in this referendum because the Government has met two key conditions; resolving the issue of neutrality and the progression of the European Union Bill.

He continued that the Nice Treaty is about facilitating enlargement for the 10 states that will decide over the next two years if they decide to join the EU.

Mr Quinn also urged Irish voters not to rush to deliver a "bloody nose to the Government and a Taoiseach that had deliberately deceived the Irish people in the run up to the last General Election".

"Wait in the long grass and deliver your retribution to Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats where it hurts - in 20 months time in European Parliament seat local authority seats", he said.