Why Europe still needs to develop

The EU faces more complex times and a different response is needed, argues Pat Cox.

OVER the past two decades our debates in Ireland on the EU’s evolving common foreign and security policy have focused too little on context and practice and too much on overblown and frequently lurid assertions about its intent.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the rapid end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, dramatically altered the strategic landscape. It carried both opportunities and challenges in its wake.

German reunification and the enlargement of the EU from 15 to 27 member states illustrate the extent in Europe to which these opportunities have been realised. Old certainties died. The threat of large scale aggression against any member state is now highly improbable. Yet the horror of ethnic cleansing on our doorstep in the former Yugoslavia was a rude wake up call on our EU doorstep.

Europe faces new threats and challenges which are more diverse, less visible and less predictable. We are challenged by globalisation, by ageing demographics, by resource scarcity, by climate change and new security risks form energy supply to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We are disturbed in the international context by the scale of the development gap between rich and poor nations, its associated poverty, famine and disease, by the extent of poor governance, failed states and unsettled conflicts. We are concerned by the widespread absence of respect for fundamental rights, by the rise in terrorism, intolerance and fundamentalism and by the drift towards unilateralism. We worry about organised crime with its cross border trafficking in drugs, women, illegal migrants and weapons.

In contrast to the massive and visible threat in the Cold War, none of the new threats is purely military, nor can be tackled by purely military means. Politics, diplomacy, policing and civilian activities together with EU trade, development, energy and climate change policies all have a role to play. This is the context in response to which EU common foreign and security policy has evolved.

Since 2003 the EU has deployed 21 operations spread across the Balkans, Africa, the Middle East and Asia from classic peacekeeping, to border monitoring, to security sector, police or judicial reform programmes.

In total, about 10,000 people have been deployed on these operations which are mostly small in scale, but conceptually are quite sophisticated, mixing military with civilian instruments in support of political strategy.

The majority of missions to date, 15 in all, have been civilian rule of law missions. Nine are current and six concluded. The first operation was an EU police mission to Bosnia which is ongoing and which has a continuous involvement of the Garda Siochána. A military stabilisation mission to Bosnia began in 2004. This also has had the continuous involvement of the Irish Defence Forces. There have been six military missions, three current, Bosnia, Darfur and Chad, and three concluded.

Ireland has committed 95 civilians to Civilian ESDP commitments, over four deployments including 11 in Kosovo. Over 800 defence force personnel are on a series of missions overseas, with the biggest commitment to the Eufor Chad mission protecting hundreds of thousands of vulnerable refugees fleeing Darfur.

All these EU missions are UN approved. All are unanimously agreed by the member states. All Irish overseas service is in full compliance with the ‘triple lock’, requiring UN, Government and Dáil authorisation of the mission.

This year EU foreign policy will spend just under 6% of the total EU budget. €1.4 billion is allocated to pre accession aid to candidate states. The European neighbourhood policy will spend a further €1.6bn among the Union’s Southern and Eastern neighbours. €285 million will be spent on managing civilian crises, with a special emphasis on Kosovo which will receive €165m of this amount, with a further €300m to fund Palestinian institutions. EU aid to the developing world will amount to €2.3bn with an additional €2.9bn funded by member states, but managed by the Commission.

This spending and these missions in no way offend the long established principles and practice of Irish foreign policy — contrary to the emphasis of so much of our debate. All of them can be described correctly as lending a helping hand. All the interventions are by invitation and not imposition.

As regards the Lisbon treaty, from an Irish point of view the standard position on the traditional policy of military neutrality is protected. Unanimity remains the rule for security and defence. No crisis management mission can be launched without our assent. Common defence cannot be agreed without our support and is subject to referendum in Ireland. The specific character of neutral and non aligned member states is recognised and protected. There is no mechanism to oblige member states to increase military expenditure. We alone will decide what we will spend. Ireland maintains the “triple lock” requirement for troop deployments.

In summary, EU policy continues to develop, in response to international needs and in conformity with UN principles. Ireland remains committed to playing a full role, in line with our tradition and values.

The Lisbon treaty makes relatively modest changes which do not alter our national position, which is why I am happy to commend it for a yes vote on June 12.

Pat Cox is a former president of the European Parliament and spokesman for the Irish Alliance for Europe on the Lisbon reform treaty.