Paris, 3 December – Irish Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche said on Wednesday that the European Union (EU) did not need a mutual defence pact or a two-speed arrangement for defence and security.

It was not necessary to have a mutual defence clause that cut across national constitutional provisions, he told the Assembly. “What is needed now is a little ingenuity to ensure (the new EU Constitution) is not exclusive, (and) I do think we can achieve it”. Mr Roche said he hoped the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), which is now negotiating the new Constitution, would be completed before Ireland took over the EU presidency on 1 January 2004, because the agenda for that country’s six-month term of office was already full. “The number one priority will be enlargement” with the entry into the EU of 10 new members on 1 May 2004.

He said that reports of last weekend’s IGC meeting in Naples had reflected greater finality on a mutual defence guarantee and structured cooperation than was actually achieved. But, he admitted “there has been movement over the last few days” and EU ministerial meetings in the coming days would clarify the issue.

Outlining his plans for Ireland’s presidency, Mr Roche said that capabilities for crisis-management operations would remain a central issue. Most quantitative targets for 2003 had been met, so attention would turn to targets for the future and qualitative aspects in both civilian and military fields. He pinpointed four European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) missions: the current EU police mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EU police mission in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, to be launched this month, a possible follow-up mission to the NATO-led multinational peace stabilisation force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a possible police assistance mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He stressed the importance of “effective multilateralism for which the United Nations is the pivot”, and that conflict prevention would be “an important cross-cutting aim” over the next six months, and the subject of a working-level EU conference in Dublin in late March or early April of next year. He announced that transatlantic relations would be “a key dimension” of the Irish presidency, remarking that “While we may not always see eye to eye on every issue, we are determined (…) to find ways to further develop and deepen the already close cooperation between the EU and the United States”.

He said he was strongly committed to intergovernmental parliamentary scrutiny. The WEU Assembly had played a very important role in “effectively communicating developments in the security and defence area” and should continue to do so.