Vótáil `Níl' -- Vote `No'

On 22 May people in the 26 Counties will be voting on the Amsterdam Treaty. The `No' campaign is being led by the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA) to which Sinn Féin is affiliated. Here we carry an edited verison of PANA's case for a `No' vote.

THE AMSTERDAM TREATY is a major attack on the policy of Irish Neutrality and a further decisive move towards the transformation of the European Union into a nuclear armed superstate.

The EU will now decide matters with defence implications and have a defence arm. The Treaty commits the state to ``the progressive framing of a common defence policy''. It envisages the full integration of the nuclear armed military alliance, the Western European Union, into the EU. It advocates the use of the WEU in ``peacemaking'' and ``crisis management'', creates a EU Foreign and Security Policy Supremo; establishes an embryonic Foreign Office; and brings cooperation on armaments into the EU. It moves the state from having a policy of positive neutrality towards a policy of nuclear insanity.

Common Foreign and Security Policy


The Amsterdam Treaty inserts a new Article J.1 into the European Treaties, with the following opening sentence:

`` The Union shall define and implement a common foreign policy covering all areas of foreign and security policy......''

This replaces Article J.1 of the Maastricht Treaty, which stated, ``The Union and its member states shall define and implement'' the common and security policy. The new Treaty therefore attaches a common foreign and security policy to the Union itself.

A new Article J.2 is inserted, empowering the Union itself, rather than the Member States acting in cooperation, to pursue the objectives of the common foreign and security policy by, ``defining the principles and general guidelines of the common foreign policy, deciding on common strategies, adopting joint actions, adopting common positions and strengthening systematic cooperation between Member States in the conduct of policy.''

Defence Implications


A new Article J.3 is substituted for Article J.8.1. and 2 of the Maastricht Treaty. It states, ``The European Council shall define the principles of and the general guidelines for the common foreign and security policy, including for matters with defence implications.''

This Article gives an explicit role to the European Council in military and defence issues greater than the Maastricht Treaty.

Towards a Common Defence


A new Article J7 replaces J4 of the Maastricht Treaty. It states, ``The common foreign and security policy shall include all questions relating to the security of the Union, including the progressive framing of a common defence policy, in accordance with the second subparagraph, which might lead to a common defence, should the European Council so decide. It shall in that case recommend to the member states the adoption of such a decision in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements.''

There is no Article in the Irish Constitution which prevents the State from entering a military alliance, as Irish Neutrality has always been a policy with political rather than legal power.

If this Treaty is passed we will be committed to the progressive framing of a common defence policy. The ``second subparagraph'' refers to the EU/WEU link, so that the proposed common defence policy is to be based on that link.

Since the terms of the Treaty will be part of our Constitution, the commitment will be part of our Constitution. A commitment which did not apply to our neutrality.

The Referendum previously held to ratify the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 stated that;

``No provision of this Constitution invalidates laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the State which are necessitated by the obligations of membership of the European Union.''

In short, the Maastricht Treaty is superior to any article the Irish Constitution.

However, it only applies to obligations necessitated up to and including the Masstricht Treaty.

The Supreme Court ruled that every further step in the transfer of power to Brussels by the Irish people would need another Referendum. and the Amsterdam Treaty is in that category. It is likely that the proposed Referendum, will give the new Amsterdam Treaty, which is a development on Maastricht, the same superiority over our own Constitution.

The Peace and Neutrality Alliance is therefore calling for a Referendum to amend Article 29.2 of our Constitution which reads:

``Ireland affirms its adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judicial determination'',

by adding

``To this end the State shall, in particular, maintain a policy of non-membership of military alliances.''

This would make clear that the Irish people did not want the EU to develop into a nuclear armed superstate. It would copper fasten our neutrality, and even by seeking support, we would be exposing who does, and who does not, support Irish Neutrality.

PANA believes is not possible with any level of credibility to state that one supports Irish Neutrality while at the same time agreeing to the phrase, `the progressive framing of a common defence policy', contained in the Amsterdam Treaty. No Irish politician can credibly advocate a policy which they did not wish to implement.

Article J.7(3) States:

``The policy of the Union in accordance with this Article shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain member States and shall respect the obligations of certain member-States, which see their common defence realised in NATO, under the North Atlantic Treaty and be compatible with the Common Security and Defence Policy established within that framework.''

It is sometimes claimed this article protects our neutrality. Yet how can the ``policy of the Union'' --- be compatible with the common security and defence policy established within that framework''(NATO's) and not ``prejudice'' the security and defence policies of the neutrals?

Danish Protocol


The Danish Government unlike the Irish insisted on a Protocol which states;

``With regard to measures adopted by the Council in the field of Articles J.3(1) and J.7 of the Treaty of the European Union, Denmark does not participate in the elaboration and the implementation of decisions and actions of the Union which have defence implications, but will not prevent the development of closer cooperation between member States in this area. Therefore Denmark shall not participate in their adoption. Denmark shall not be obliged to contribute to the financing of the operational expenditure arising from such measures''.

There was no reason why Ireland could not also have insisted on a similar Protocol.

The European Arms Industry


The last sentence of the new article J.7.1. encourages Member States to cooperate in order to develop the European Arms industry and armaments policy. It states;

``The progressive framing of a common defence policy will be supported, as member States consider appropriate, by cooperation between them in the field of armaments.''

In the context of the Titley Report of the European Parliament, this provision has serious implications for Ireland which has a small but growing arms trade.as can be seen in the report Links: Ireland's Link's with the Arms Trade and Military Industry published be AfRI. which clearly established the involvement of Irish companies in the international arms industry.

The annual production of defence equipment in the European Union is approximately £40 billion, which is 3% of annual industrial output. The industry employs 600,000 people directly and 400,000 indirectly. Germany, France, Italy, the UK and Sweden account for 90% of the EU arms trade which has a 20% share of the world export market for major conventional weapons.However the Titley Report makes it clear that the there has been a cut back in orders for military equipment leading to fierce competition especially with the US.

The Report states in article I.

``Neither the European defence identity nor the common foreign and security policy of the EU can be credible without a strong European armaments industry.''

There can be little doubt that one of the main reasons for having a common foreign and security policy, which would be greatly strengthened if the Amsterdam Treaty is passed, is to expand and develop the European arms industry. It gives a clear signal that such expansion should happen in Ireland as well.

The Western European Union


The WEU was established in March 1948, was overtaken by the establishment of NATO in 1949, and lay dormant until relaunched in the mid- Eighties as a potential defence arm of the European Union. Its members include Belgium, France, German, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the U.K. During its relaunch, at the Hague in 1987, the WEU issued a ``Platform on European Security Interests'', calling for a EU common defence and strengthened solidarity between the EU and NATO.

The Platform also reaffirmed support for nuclear defence and stated that nuclear weapons were required ``to confront a potential aggressor with an unacceptable risk.''

WEU membership brings a binding security guarantee even stronger than NATO's. The WEU attached two declarations to the Maastricht Treaty in which it made clear its evolving role as the defence component of the EU and its binding link with NATO.

The Amsterdam Treaty clearly envisages full integration of the WEU into the EU in due course.

Article J7 states the WEU;

``is an integral part of the development of the Union providing the Union with access to an operational capability..... It supports the Union in framing the defence aspects of the common foreign and security policy as set out in this Article. The Union shall accordingly foster closer institutional relations with the WEU with a view to the possibility of the integration of the WEU into the Union, should the European Council so decide.''

This integration has to be adopted according to the constitutional requirements of the Member States. A protocol to Article 7 of the Treaty calls for arrangements for enhanced cooperation between the EU and the WEU to be ready within a year of the Amsterdam Treaty being ratified. Since the EU Commission, the EU Parliament, the Governments of Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and Spain, all support the merger of the WEU with the EU there can be little doubt about the signal an Irish Government is giving by supporting this Treaty.

Crisis Management & Peacemaking


Article J.7. 2 also states;

`` Questions referred to in this Article shall include humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks and combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking.''

The phrase, ``shall include'', means that military actions which the WEU undertakes on behalf of the EU are not confined to the tasks mentioned, but may go beyond them. Article J.7.2 explicitly lists the ``Petersburg tasks'' The words ``crisis management,''and ``peacemaking'' are not defined and their interpretation therefore will be left to the Council. They could include any military intervention in any war situation. It appears member states can opt out of any such engagement. However Denmark, but not Ireland, insisted on a Protocol added to the Treaty so that it would be specifically excluded from any involvement military, political, or financial in decisions taken in regard to military involvement undertaken by the EU under the articles of this Treaty. In practice, however, it would prove very difficult for any Irish Government,- representing even before the EU's expansion, less that 1% of the EU's population- to distance itself from military action after agreeing to the terms of the Amsterdam Treaty.

This is clearly the case when Article J1.2 states;

``The member States shall support the Unions external and security policy actively and unreservedly in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity.''

An EU Foreign Office


Article J.8 gives the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers the function of;

``High Representative for the common foreign and security policy.''

This makes an EU civil servant a full-time executive supervising the implementation of the EU's common foreign and security policy. It creates the embryo of an EU Dept. of Foreign Affairs. The Treaty also establishes a Common Foreign and Security Policy planning and early warning unit run by the General Secretary.

Majority voting on Security


Article J. 13 provides for foreign and security decisions to be taken by qualified majority voting.

``when adopting joint actions, common positions or taking any other decision on the basis of a common strategy, (and) when adopting any decision implementing a joint action or a common position.''

This means that an individual state like Ireland can be overruled, subject to the qualification that if a member State, ``for important and stated reasons of national policy,'' objects to such a vote, it will not proceed, but may be referred to the European Council, the Heads of State and Government, for decision by unanimity. However, in practice, states have very rarely used this device, and small states such as Ireland will be under great pressure to accept majority decisions.

The Referendum


The Peace and Neutrality Alliance seeks the support of the Irish people 200 years after they opposed the British Union, to once more support Irish Democracy by voting against the Treaty and to then seek amendments which will exclude Ireland from aspects of the Treaty which attempt to slowly strangle our neutrality and national democracy.

Between the lines

by Meadbh Gallagher

If you want to know why you should vote No in the EU referendum on May 22nd, look no further than Dublin, March 20th 1998.

At a meeting of Europe's most secretive police units in the Grand Hotel, Malahide, the Garda Siochana were represented by none other than senior Special Branch figures and members of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU).

At the meeting, the ERU exchanged papers and opinions with the Met's SO19, the `anti-terrorist unit' which brought us the shoot-to-kill of Diarmuid O'Neill, and Germany's paramilitary police section GSG9. The FBI were also there.

This is the type of company we're keeping under the covers of the Maastricht Treaty. The Amsterdam Treaty will enhance such co-operation and secure it in even more secretive structures.

It was senior Special Branch figures and members of the ERU who organised the ambush last Friday in Ashford, County Wicklow in which Ronan McLaughlin was shot dead.

Like all such cases, initial police reports suggested Gardai opened fire only after they themselves had been fired upon. This allegation was subsequently withdrawn.

After all the charges and court cases are done with, the public will still not know that Ronan McLaughlin was gunned down when he could have been arrested. The Gardai will not tell the truth and there will be no one in a position of power in this state compelling them to do so.

You might be forgiven for thinking that aside from the occasional bout of flu, the boys in blue (and they are mainly boys) are harmless as Eurocops go.

The political establishment in the South certainly thinks so. Their `tut tuts' are usually directed northward at the RUC.

But the record of the Special Branch and ERU shows that when it comes to EU copshare meetings, for Garda reps, it's a case of: ``Wait `til you hear what our lads are up to''.

The point about the EU, whether in common defence, common foreign policy or common policing, is that the Irish state will always be lapping at the heels, trying to do one better than the rest.

And the rest are one awful lot. Take for example the German police. Their record of harmless intervention in the cause of the common good isn't great. The day the Eurocops meeting was taking place in Dublin on March 20th, the biggest security operation mounted since World War Two was underway in Germany. Thirty thousand police, equivalent to the full force of the RUC, were used to force a nuclear waste train from the south of Germany to a depot north of Cologne against the wishes of local people.

And as the ERU fired on a group that was exposed for all to see in the Wicklow hills, on the same day thousands of German police again took the side of neo-Nazis in clashes with left-wing and anti-racist demonstrators in Berlin, Leipzig and other German cities. The abuse of state power was just as awesome and awful behind the confines of the Garda scenes of crime tape in Ashford as it is daily in the North, and daily in cities throughout the EU.

The dodos of Democratic Left think there's nothing left to oppose in the drive to get back into power. The Labour Party thinks its electorate are fools. That's why both are recommending a Yes vote to the Amsterdam Treaty to their voters.

One can only be amazed at their cheek in accusing opponents of the Treaty of living in the past.