Vol. 512 No. 2
2 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the proposals, if any, he has made for EU conflict prevention mechanisms in the framework of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25687/99]
The Cologne European Council in June of this year stated its conviction that the Council should have the ability to take decisions on the full range of conflict prevention and crisis management tasks defined in the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Petersberg Tasks. The Cologne conclusions underlined the importance of UN principles in this connection.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs contributed actively to discussions on this issue at a number of meetings of the EU General Affairs Council and underlined on a number of occasions, most recently at the General Affairs Council of 15 November, that crisis management is a broad spectrum including civilian as well as military dimensions. There is a need for effective and early EU approaches to conflict prevention and early warning, using non-military tools available. Ireland therefore welcomes and supports the Finnish Presidency's emphasis on non-military crisis management which is being pursued in parallel with the work on the Petersberg Tasks of military crisis management.
At the meeting on 15 November, the Minister for Foreign Affairs emphasised to partners and to Javier Solana, the High Representative for the CFSP, the importance of bringing EU influence to bear at the earliest possible stage of a potential crisis and the positive role which Javier Solana could play in elaboration and implementation of the EU's conflict prevention diplomacy.
In the context of the Finnish Presidency's work on non-military crisis management, Ireland has actively contributed to an inventory of resources and capabilities within the EU which the Presidency has prepared in relation to non-military crisis management, including conflict prevention, covering such areas as UN and OSCE civil policing, humanitarian assistance and electoral and human rights monitoring. The Presidency has proposed an action plan in regard to non-military crisis management which incorporates a number of practical proposals intended to develop a rapid reaction capability in this field. A non-bureaucratic co-ordination mechanism has been proposed by the Presidency to maintain a database of relevant resources and, depending on the EU's role, to co-ordinate responses to particular crises. The EU's contribution will be in harmony with, and in support of, UN and OSCE efforts. Ireland supports this proposed action plan and we look forward to its submission to the Helsinki European Council.
I wish to be associated with Deputy Mitchell's remarks about the successful signing today of the British-Irish Agreement, which replaces the Anglo-Irish Agreement, and the work which has been done recently in bringing the Good Friday Agreement to this point. We can all hope now that the various parties in Northern Ireland will work together to undermine the sectarianism that is still rampant there. It has not gone away and serious work needs to be done to deal with it.
I thank the Minister of State for her reply. My question asked what specific proposals the Government had made in relation to conflict prevention. The Minister of State outlined the steps the Finnish Presidency has taken to put this matter on the agenda. I welcome that move but does the Finnish action plan contain any proposals from the Irish Government? Did the Government put forward any proposals given that Ireland put great emphasis on that aspect of security in Europe and worldwide in the White Paper on foreign policy?
The EU, which has access to a broad range of instruments, political, diplomatic, humanitarian and financial, is well placed to contribute to conflict prevention in Europe and further afield. Peacekeeping responses within the framework of the Petersberg Tasks are important, but successful conflict prevention is a more desirable solution than dealing with the aftermath of a conflict.
Ireland, generally through its foreign policy, is very much to the fore in EU peacekeeping efforts around the world. We are significantly and uniquely placed to argue for a conflict resolution approach as distinct from coming in in the aftermath of a conflict. At every opportunity and at every fora, Irish Ministers put forward this ideology.
The question of a common strategy on conflict prevention has been under discussion in the EU. It is an idea which the Government supports. Work on such a common strategy is envisaged once the initial EU common strategies on Russia, Ukraine and the Mediterranean are assessed and reviewed. We will support the action plan as I have outlined in my substantive reply.
There are further questions. Question No. 13 relates to the debate on the common security and defence policy. I will be dealing with that at a later point.
Will the Minister of State undertake to circulate the action plan to which she refers, which the Finnish Presidency has put forward? In addition, is she concerned, as I am, about the pace of change on the military defence front, that there seems to be a very much greater emphasis and priority being given to military co-ordination within Europe as against the idea of putting in place serious conflict prevention measures, which is more than diplomacy? In that context, does the Minister agree with the idea being promoted by the European Parliament that a civil peace corps should be established which would be a non-military intervention force or unit in situations where conflict has not yet broken out but is on the point of breaking out?
I will undertake to circulate that action plan. There have been concerns expressed that the security debate is developing at too rapid a pace. It is the case that some of our EU partners are more enthusiastic about the development of a common defence and security policy. However, this issue can only proceed on the basis of the Treaty of Amsterdam and by unanimity within the EU. Ireland is playing a full part in the discussions where our interests coincide closely with those of the other EU neutral partners. The Helsinki European Council will be a staging post in this debate, but will not mark the conclusion of the debate.
As to the final point Deputy De Rossa makes in relation to a civil peace corps, I would be supportive of that, and I will undertake to get a more detailed note of our formal response to this matter and circulate it to the Deputy.
