Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 21 May 1991

Vol. 408 No. 7

Written Answers. - EC Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Madeleine Taylor-Quinn

Question:

30 Mrs. Taylor-Quinn asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the meeting of EC Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg at the end of April and in particular the progress in relation to a common defence and security policy for EC member states.

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Collins)

The meeting to which the Deputy refers was devoted to an exchange of views on the proposal for a common foreign and security policy for the Community. The meeting was an informal one, and accordingly no decisions were taken and no conclusions were drawn up at the end of the discussion.

While progress has been made in certain areas in the negotiations on a common foreign and security policy, serious differences have arisen in other areas, notably as regard the relationship between security and defence, proposals for a possible relationship between the Western European Union and the Community, and the question of whether the Community should develop a defence policy for itself, or even accept in principle that it should attempt to do so in the future. Widely divergent views have been expressed on these points. There is now growing acceptance that real progress is unlikely to be made until differences of view of a fundamental kind, such as those I have referred to, are resolved.