LUXEMBOURG: The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, has predicted that a declaration on neutrality at this week's EU summit in Seville will remove the issue from the debate on the Nice Treaty.
Speaking in Luxembourg after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Mr Cowen said that the Government wanted a clear statement of Ireland's military obligations under Nice and existing EU treaties.
"I want to clear this up, the Taoiseach wants to clear it up and the Government wants to clear it up," he said.
The Seville summit will produce two declarations, one a national declaration on behalf of the Government and another by all 15 EU leaders. The national declaration will reassert Ireland's attachment to its traditional policy of neutrality and its opposition to membership of a military alliance.
It will rule out participation in any European army - a body the EU insists is not envisaged - and reaffirm that Irish forces will only take part in overseas military operations that are UN-mandated and have been approved by both the Government and the Oireachtas.
The EU declaration will state that Ireland's policy as outlined in the national declaration is entirely in accordance with the Nice Treaty and all previous EU treaties. Neither declaration will have any legal status but Mr Cowen expressed confidence that the declarations would establish that the Nice Treaty has no impact on Irish neutrality.
"What will emerge from Seville will clearly state what our obligations are with regard to this matter," he said.
The ministers failed to agree on a proposal to impose economic sanctions on non-EU countries that fail to co-operate in repatriating illegal immigrants. Most member-states favour imposing punitive measures but France and Sweden said that punishing poor countries for failing to take back illegal immigrants was impractical and self-defeating.
EU justice ministers last week agreed a number of measures to combat illegal immigration, including better co-operation between border police in the 15 member-states. Mr Cowen defended the proposal to use EU trade agreements to pressurise third countries to co-operate in combating illegal immigration and rejected a suggestion by his Swedish counterpart, Ms Anna Lindh, that it had too much stick and too little carrot.
"I don't agree with that analysis. If there is human trafficking going on, it's a trade in human misery and we have to stop that," he said.
The ministers postponed a decision on extending direct payments to farmers in central and eastern Europe when new member-states join the EU. They agreed a text stating that direct payments were part of EU law but acknowledging that there was no provision in the EU's current budget plan for extending the payments to new member-states.
The compromise means that the EU can agree a common position on all other elements of agriculture negotiations with the candidate countries. The issue of direct payments will not be discussed until later this year - after Germany, which opposes extending the payments to central and eastern Europe, holds its general election.
The ministers were critical of a proposal that they should hand over responsibility for some issues to European affairs ministers.
Mr Cowen was among those who expressed misgivings about the plan, which would divide the General Affairs Council, where foreign ministers are represented, into two.
Officials said the ministers' resistance to losing power was unsurprising but noted that, when EU leaders discuss the proposal in Seville later this week, the foreign ministers will be asked to leave the room.