I will take Questions Nos. 42 and 98 together.
The meeting of EC Foreign Ministers which took place in Luxembourg on 26 March and to whom I take it the Deputy's question refers, was one of a series of informal, so-called Gymnich type meetings. Because of their informal nature these meetings do not produce formal conclusions. There is therefore no formal conclusion on behalf of all the Twelve that there can be no common foreign policy without a defence policy. The view attributed to Foreign Minister Poos that a common foreign and security policy must include defence is just one of the views being expressed on this subject in the Intergovernmental Conference on Political Union.
The speech which the President of the EC Commission, Jacques Delors, delivered to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London on 7 March addressed the question of a common foreign policy and a common defence policy. President Delors expressed the view that the treaty which will be prepared by the IGC "should allow for common defence issues to be dealt with by the European Council". He went on to say that, in proposing this outline, the Commission was remaining faithful to the guidelines set by the European Council in Rome last December, which set out a list of issues — arms control, the CSCE, the UN, non-proliferation — in the field of security and defence.
President Delors is of course entitled to express his view about how policy should be developed. In fact the Conclusions of the December European Council to which he refers distinguished between security and defence and the items he cited are among those set out in the paragraph specifically devoted to common security. In so far as defence as such is concerned, what is to be considered is the prospect of a role for the union, with a view to the future, and without prejudice either to the commitments of member states who are members of the Atlantic Alliance or to the traditional positions of other member states, which, of course, includes Ireland.