Michael McGowan asks whether our six-month leadership of the European Union will result in concrete decisons on eradicating weapons of mass destruction around the world.
The Irish presidency of the European Union provides this country with an historic challenge following the controversial award to the EU of the Nobel Peace Prize, the timing of which signifies an act of solidarity by the Nobel Peace Committee as the EU faces the biggest crisis in its history.
The challenges of austerity and unemployment rife across Europe and the threat to the planet from poverty, terrorism, and climate change all require global solutions. And Ireland and the EU are well placed to meet these challenges.
I was present in Dublin’s City Hall when European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, accompanied by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, launched the European Year of Citizens at the start of the Irish EU presidency when his address made little reference to anything global. I was also present at Oslo City Hall in Norway where the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize for transforming “a continent of war” into “a continent of peace”, when Barroso then spoke of the EU’s commitment to human rights, to developing countries and to nuclear non-proliferation. In my 15 years as a member of the European Parliament, I had not heard such a clear expression from a senior official of the EU to a commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, and my thoughts immediately focused on the imminent Irish presidency.
It was 1958 in the UN General Assembly when then Irish Minister of External Affairs, Frank Aiken, launched the process that led to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which Ireland was the first to sign in Moscow ten years later. Minister Aiken was a fearless and influential Irish politician who advocated Chinese membership of the United Nations, campaigned against apartheid in South Africa, and introduced the ‘Aiken Plan’ in the UN to link disarmament and peace in the Middle East, as Ireland was on good terms with both Israel and many Arab countries.
The non-proliferation of nuclear weapons has historically been a key foreign affairs objective of Ireland, and it’s significant that President Barroso choose to refer to this in Oslo on the eve of the Irish presidency.
President Barroso, whose EU Commission is responsible for proposing EU policy, was speaking at a very public event in Norway attended by 20 of the 27 member states of the EU, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Francois Hollande of France, and notably Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Moreover, the Nobel message to the EU itself could not be clearer. It is an encouragement to Ireland to use the six months of its presidency to help rescue the reputation of the EU and take forward the spirit of the Nobel Prize across Europe and provide the global voice and leadership it so desperately needs.
It is Ireland that took the initiative that led to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty aimed at both preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and eventually eradicating them, the responsible use of nuclear energy aside. And for more than five decades successive Irish Governments have pursued a policy of conflict prevention and opposition to nuclear weapons.
Irish politicians, diplomats and NGOs have influence across the world because of their informal and non-hierarchical skills. As a member of the European Parliament I have worked with Irish colleagues in both parliament and commission, and with Irish NGOs, and believe these Irish skills can contribute so much to peace and co-operation.
The behaviour of bankers, big business, and politicians who have supported them in Ireland has inflicted hardship on the people of this country, but the Irish EU presidency is well placed to tackle this situation, provided the EU understands the need to overcome austerity, unemployment, conflict, and terrorism by showing real global leadership.
President Barroso may wish to honour the spirit of the Nobel Prize during the Irish EU presidency and reflect on his own words: “The last 60 years have shown that Europe can unite in peace. Over the next 60 years, Europe must lead the global quest for peace.”
Michael McGowan is a former MEP and president of the Development Committee of the European Parliament.
