Keynote Address on the significance of the
Nice Treaty and the future of Ireland in Europe
Speech by the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern
TD at the Founders’ Dinner, Institute of European Affairs,
Dublin,
29 March 2001
I am very pleased to be here for what is
an annual highlight of the Institute’s year. Indeed, I am
aware that this is a special occasion, as the Institute is now
ten years old. It’s a good year for birthdays - Fianna Fáil
is seventy-five this year, of course - and I am sure there will
be many more to come for the IEA.
Brendan Halligan has described some of the
IEA’s activities over the past months, and its plans for
the coming year. I am deeply impressed both by the quantity and
the quality of the Institute’s work. Your research is always
oriented towards the real world concerns of policy-makers. Your
meetings stimulate debate and dialogue, and you provide a platform
for a stream of distinguished visitors to Ireland.
The Institute owes a huge amount both to
its permanent staff, headed by Joe Brosnan, and to the many volunteers
who work on its committees. All of those who support it financially,
both from the public and the private sectors - and it is good
that so many of you are here tonight - should feel proud that
they are making a valuable contribution to our public and democratic
life.
The coming period will be important for
Ireland and for Europe, and it is good that the IEA is here to
take part in the debate. At a time of transition we need voices
like the IEA’s - voices which are clear and well-informed,
sympathetic but honest.
The Government today published the wording
we propose for the forthcoming referendum on the Nice Treaty.
In a couple of minutes I will say a little about the Treaty and
the referendum.
However, even leaving Nice aside for a moment,
we are living through a period of transformation in Ireland and
in Europe. Ireland has changed very rapidly over the past number
of years, and continues to do so. That is also true of the EU
itself. But while aspects of the relationship may be changing,
its importance is not. I think that, both within the Government
and more widely, we need constantly to assess our priorities in
the EU, and look at how we formulate our policies and at how we
present them. At the same time, we must not lose sight of the
basic reality, which is that our active participation in the Union
is and will remain of fundamental importance to our economy, our
society, and our development as a prosperous and outward-looking
nation.
It is sometimes argued that, while the Irish
people have consistently supported the development of the European
Union, and Ireland’s membership of the Union, they have done
so simply out of narrow financial self-interest.
I simply do not agree with this analysis.
I think that the Irish people know well that the Union, while
it must bring practical benefits to its people, is also about
a broader ideal. Of course from day to day countries are keenly
aware of their own interests as they see them, and rightly so.
I can assure you, on the basis of my experience around the table
at European Council meetings, including last week at Stockholm,
that it is as true of everybody else as it is of Ireland. I don’t
imagine that Governments anywhere would last long if they were
not careful at all times to maximise the welfare of their own
people. That is, after all, a fundamental aspect of democratic
accountability.
I would also be the last person to want
to play down the fact that EU membership has been overwhelmingly
and directly to our benefit. Our net receipts from the CAP have
amounted to close to £20 billion. Intelligent use of the
Structural Funds has helped to develop our economy and has been
a major, but by no means the only, factor in our recent social
and economic transformation. Membership of the Single European
Market has been crucial in positioning Ireland as a key player
in transatlantic trade and investment. Our commitment to the disciplines
of EMU has brought interest rates down to what are, in terms of
recent history, remarkably low levels.
The EU has been good for Ireland in direct,
material ways. But I think that, all along, the Irish people have
also been fully aware of the wider dimensions of the European
ideal. I certainly remember, back in 1973, a strong feeling that
joining the EEC, as it then was, was a decisive step in our movement
towards a more positive and outward-looking approach to the world.
We realised that we were opening ourselves
up as a society as well as an economy. And, once again the balance
sheet has been overwhelmingly positive in this area too.
EU membership has allowed us to play a role
in the wider world which would have been impossible otherwise.
It has modernised our approaches to issues such as gender equality
and environmental protection. It has meant that Ministers and
other members of the Oireachtas, public servants, business people,
trade unionists and many others have widened their horizons.
Above all, perhaps, EU membership, by changing
the context in which we relate to Britain, and by helping us to
break out of a pattern of excessive economic dependence, has greatly
enhanced the British-Irish relationship. We have become used to
seeing one another as partners with many shared interests and
objectives. The strong relationship between the two Governments
has been the bedrock on which the peace process, and the Good
Friday Agreement, have been built - and, of course, the EU has
very generously supported us in building reconciliation and in
stimulating North/South links.
So I am convinced that, while the economic
benefits of Ireland’s place within the EU are immense, the
story by no means ends there. And the fact that our net transfers
from the EU are diminishing, and will probably continue to diminish,
should be a source of pride in our economic achievements, not
a cause of anxiety.
I am sure that, when on 31 May the people
to go to the polls on the Nice Treaty, they will vote solidly
in favour of enlargement. I believe that they will appreciate
that, while the enlargement of the Union which Nice makes possible
may, at first glance, seem to be of little direct concern to Ireland,
which is so far away from all the applicants, it is in reality
very important indeed.
First of all, Ireland, as a trading nation,
has done very well out of the existing Union. An enlarged Union,
a greater Single market, will be very much in our interests -
as those Irish businesses already operating in places like Poland
know well. Secondly, it is in Ireland’s interests, both political
and economic, for the whole continent of Europe to be prosperous,
stable and democratic. Thirdly, as a country which itself for
many years had to pursue freedom as the highest national goal,
we should have an instinctive sympathy for countries which were
denied their freedom for too long.
Ireland was fortunate to have been able
to escape the worst effects of World War Two and the Cold War.
This should not prevent us from wanting to do all we can to support
those who were less fortunate than we were and to give them the
same chance that we got. We, too, will benefit from the distinctive
contribution they will make to a wider and more diverse Europe.
I find it bizarre that some of those who
oppose the Nice Treaty do so in the name of democracy - when it
is the basic purpose of the Treaty, as it is of the EU itself,
to consolidate peace and democracy.
It is also striking that their opposition
is equal only to the enthusiasm of the applicants for admission.
They seem to think they know better than do the people of Central
and Eastern Europe what is good for them.
The basic thrust of the ‘no’ argument
is always the same - that we will be swept aside and overwhelmed
within Europe. It betrays a fundamental lack of confidence in
Ireland and the Irish people, as well as a remarkable blindness
to the realities of our experience as I’ve been describing
them.
In essence, the issue revolves around what
you consider to be the purpose and limits of sovereignty. I see
the true sovereignty of the Irish people as being not a theoretical
concept but a measure of how successfully we can protect and promote
our basic national interests and our social and economic wellbeing
as a people. I believe that our consistent and bipartisan policy
towards the EU over the past thirty years has done far more to
achieve both purposes than any narrow policy of isolationism would
have.
In the real world, all countries, especially
small ones, operate within very considerable constraints. Nobody
can pull the curtains and tell the world to go away. Now more
than ever, the need for the effects of globalisation to be managed
and balanced is strongly apparent. We face challenges - from Foot
and Mouth to the turbulence of the world’s stock markets
to climate change - which respect no frontiers.
The question for Ireland now, as it was
thirty years ago, is whether we are better off co-operating in
shaping our future with similar, like-minded peoples and states
in the EU than we would be on our own. All of the evidence surely
is that we are.
I note that even those who have most strongly
opposed our membership do not now call for withdrawal. Neither
do they explain how we would enhance our influence and our credibility
within the EU by blocking for no good reason a fixed policy and
major priority of the Union as a whole.
The current version of the old prophecy
of doom is that Nice will decisively shift the balance within
the Union towards the bigger states, and will create a two-tier
Europe with Ireland in the second group. Neither claim is true.
Nice did recognise that, with successive
enlargements, the relative positions of larger countries have
in fact been eroded over time. It rectifies that somewhat, especially
for Germany. But Ireland will still be doing much better than
the size of our population strictly warrants. In future - unlike
now - all Member States will be exactly equal in terms of their
entitlement to nominate a Commissioner. Ireland will be on level
terms with France or Germany or Britain.
In the Council, Ireland will still have
twice as many votes per capita as the average. One of the formal
requirements for a qualified majority at the Council will be that
a majority of all member states - irrespective of their combined
populations - must support a proposition.
This would make it impossible for the big
to gang up on the small - although in the EU, debate and negotiation
do not in any event become polarised on these lines. And on matters
which Member States have picked out as being of key national importance,
like taxation for us, unanimity will still apply. Where it doesn’t,
our experience shows that in votes on a QMV basis we have nearly
always been in the majority, supporting measures which we want
to see and which are in our interests.
Likewise, in regard to what is called enhanced
co-operation, or flexibility, those who foresee a two-tier Europe
have got it wrong, just as they did with the Amsterdam Treaty
which initially introduced provisions of this kind. Where the
Union as a whole does not wish or is not able to move ahead on
a given issue - and, with 27 members, it is easy to see how this
might happen - it will be slightly simpler for a group of members
to do so, subject to a range of safeguards.
These safeguards include the need to respect
the integrity of the Single Market, the involvement of the Commission
to ensure conformity with the Treaties, and the right of any State
to join a group at a future point. Matters having military or
defence implications are explicitly ruled out.
What is involved, therefore, is not a fixed
two-tier Europe, but a situation where fluid groups, which may
and almost certainly will vary in their make-up, will come together
for this or that specific purpose. The extent to which these provisions
will be used is not clear.
But I can easily envisage Ireland choosing
to join an advanced group where it suits us - as we have in comparable
situations in the past, for example in relation to EMU. How can
there be anything to fear in that? As I said earlier, it comes
down to a belief in ourselves and our capacity to identify and
take opportunities.
The Nice Treaty will be good for Europe,
and good for Ireland as an integral part of a prosperous, peaceful
and diverse Europe. The Ireland of the early twenty-first century
is a confident, tolerant and ambitious place. Our experience shows
that those values and qualities are respected and rewarded in
Europe, and that enlarging the European Union is a challenge and
an opportunity which we are right to embrace wholeheartedly. I
urge everybody who shares that view to make sure that on 31 May
we again vote Yes to Europe.
