The War-Making Tasks of the European Union
Article J.7.2 of the Amsterdam Treaty states:
'Questions referred to in this article shall include humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks, and combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking.'
During the debate on the Amsterdam Treaty PANA said this meant giving the right of the EU to become involved in war, and the political elite totally denied it and called us "extremists and isolationists." Yet after they won, one of them, John Bruton, former Leader of Fine Gael, said in the Dail on 22/10/99:
'Peacemaking means imposing, by the use of force, peaceful conditions under the terms laid down by the peacemaker. It is very difficult to distinguish that from war making, unless one gets into subjective questions of motivation which are highly elastic.'
It is a reflection of the contempt for the people that the real implications of the Amsterdam Treaty were only admitted after the result.
- Military Aspects of the Nice Treaty
The Treaty of Nice constitutes a set of amendments to the already existing Treaties on the European Union. Article 1.5 of the Treaty of Nice states that a new 'Political and Security Committee' referred to earlier is charged, under an amendment to Article 25 of the Treaty on European Union, with advising on, and monitoring the implemention of, agreed defence and security policies.
This Committee:
'shall exercise, under the responsibility of the Council, political control and strategic direction of crisis management operation.'
The Nice Treaty refers in its Declaration No.1 to the Presidency Report and annexes on the European Security and Defence Policy, which set out the new military structures of the EU that are to be responsible to this new Political and Security Committee. Annex 3 of these states that among the functions of the Committee will be to:
'send guidelines to the Military Committee; receive the opinions and recommendations of the Military Committee. The Chairman of the Military Committee(EUMC), who liaises with the European Union Military Staff(EUMS), takes part, where necessary, in PSC meetings.'
The Irish Government's White Paper on the Treaty of Nice emphasised the originality of this development:
'A new standing Political and Security Committee will be established.'
This part of the Nice Treaty means that the EU is being directly militarised. Nice permits the EU to control an Army/Rapid Reaction Force directly, instead of indirectly through the Western European Union(WEU), which previously was regarded as the military arm of the EU.
Article 1.2 deletes most references to the WEU. Most of its assets are to be transferred to the EU, which directly take on the political running of military operations through the Political and Security Committee. For the first time, the EU could be directly involved in a war.
- The Link with NATO
By 2005 according to the NATO Secretary-General, the
'inadvisability of the transatlantic (US-EU) link ... will have been carved in stone. By 2005 NATO and the EU will enjoy a close and confident relationship at all levels. Both formal and informal exchanges between the secretariats and the military authorities will be a matter of routine. Joint meetings will be held, and senior officials of our respective organisations will brief each other on a regular basis.' - Brussels 29/3/2000
The appointment which clearly showed the direction intended was that of former NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana to the position of EU Common Foreign & Security Policy High Representative. At the Feira Summit in June 2000 the EU leaders agreed to improve 'consultation, co-operation and transparency' between the EU and NATO. The NATO Secretary-General should attend EU meetings. The Chair of the NATO Military Committee should attend meetings of the EU Military Committee. These links will ensure US domination of the EU military campaigns, especially those involving air power. NATO assets will not be used by the European Rapid Reaction Force without NATO's permission.
The decision to join NATO's PfP was described by Mr Bertie Ahern while in opposition as giving a 'clear signal' that Ireland would in time join NATO. It is the intention therefore, to destroy Irish Neutrality and join the nuclear armed military alliance itself.
- Regiment of the Emerging Empire
The European Union has already agreed to establish a European Army known as the Rapid Reaction Force. The ERRF will have a strength of approximately 250,000 which is the number estimated to be needed to place 60,000 soldiers into a field of conflict for at least a year. Ireland is allocating 850 soldiers to this Army, nearly 10% of our armed forces. This Army has been given the right to operate within a radius of at least 2,500 miles outside the EU, ie, as far as Afghanistan, although military plans have already been drawn-up to suggest its involvement in parts of the world well outside that area. While it is claimed the ERRF will operate only with a UN mandate, this is not required by the Amsterdam or Nice Treaties which authorised it. As we have seen from the NATO war on Yugoslavia, later endorsed by all EU states including Ireland, a UN mandate can be dispensed with. There is nothing in the Nice Treaty which would require a UN mandate for ERRF military operations.
This European Army will be used wherever the EU elite want to use it to defend their 'interests' of the elite. The French President made that position clear at the signing of the Nice Treaty. When the RRRF is used in the future, for example, to protect EU interests in the Caspian Sea region, against people who might wish to use their resources more equitably, the local people are unlikely to distinguish between the 'neutral' Irish Regiment of the ERRF and the other regiments any more than they did when the Connaught Rangers played the same role defending the 'interests' of the British Union & Empire.
