The Dáil has voted by 75 votes to 42 to join a new EU defence network.

When the true history of the past tumultuous decade is written, I suspect we will get a clearer understanding of just how concerned the political system and the monetary policymakers in Europe were about the sustainability of the euro and the whole economic and political structures that kept it together in the midst of the financial crisis.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted there is no “existential crisis” at the heart of the EU, despite admitting the political bloc “facing serious challenges” due to ongoing rifts on a series of key issues.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will today attend a meeting of EU heads of state, the first to not include Britain, for crunch talks that are set to be dominated by border security, rumours of an EU army, migration, the Apple tax crisis, and the Brexit fallout.

WITH SYRIA, a coalition of more than 100 humanitarian and human rights organisations, says that 83% of the night-time lights in Syria that were visible from space just four years ago have gone out.

Some of the arguments put in your editorial (March 9) advocating an EU army echo those of the era of European colonizations of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The European Union needs its own army to face up to Russia and other threats, as well as restore the bloc’s foreign policy standing around the world, EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told a German newspaper yesterday.

THERE is still huge uncertainty over whether guarantees regarding neutrality, abortion and taxation will be attached as protocols to the Lisbon treaty – a key demand of the Government for re-running the referendum.

MINISTERS last night defended spending €163,000 to confirm what they already knew about the Lisbon defeat — that the Government failed to explain the treaty.

THE possibility of conscription into a non-existent EU army is emerging as a significant reason why a majority of voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty, Foreign Minister Micheál Martin has said.

BEFORE we go down the road of even considering Lisbon II, a few important steps need to be taken.

“WHAT do we want? We’re not really sure! When do we want it? Maybe later?”

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has moved to ease growing divisions in the Lisbon Treaty yes campaign after Fine Gael and Labour reacted angrily to suggestions they were not pulling their weight.

I WILL vote ‘no’ to the Lisbon treaty because Ireland would become a province once again if it is passed. EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso has acknowledged the treaty incorporates a mutual defence pact.

IT defies comprehension how anyone can still maintain the EU is a democratic institution and seriously propose that we ratify the Lisbon treaty.

The proposal for a European Union Rapid Reaction Force is another way of creating the conditions for a United States of Europe with its own army, it was claimed today.

YOUR editorial (Irish Examiner, May 3) repeats the lie that those of us who protested at the Phoenix Park in Dublin last Saturday night were opposed to EU enlargement — we weren’t.

TWICE a year the pollsters are sent out to question the people of the EU on a range of issues and twice a year the citizens' opinions are put together to form a Eurobarometer. The 59th was released yesterday.

PAT COX finished one of the most hectic phases of his presidency when 10 countries signed up to join the European Union in Athens last week, but he’s looking forward to the next development — the debate over a single foreign policy and a defence force.

Sinn Fein has accused the Government of marching Ireland into a European army via the Nice Treaty.

Sinn Fein has launched its campaign for a no vote in the forthcoming re-run of the Nice Treaty referendum.

European Commission chief Romano Prodi was today joining The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for a tour of the picturesque Ring of Kerry.