H.E. Mr. Lars Thuesen:

The Senator asked about how the EU’s security and defence policy affected Irish neutrality. The short answer is that it does not. Ireland’s neutrality is fully recognised by all the EU members. It is also part of the understanding that some countries are not members of NATO. Nowadays, there are 27 members of the European Union and four countries are not members of NATO, and that is taken into account. It is Ireland’s decision if it wants to open up the discussion. I am not aware of any EU countries that want to get involved in that discussion. That is a discussion among Oireachtas Members and the Irish voters. This is fully recognised. It is not an issue at the European level.

What is an issue is that we are 24 member states who want to move forward on this agenda, and we will do that. That is also because many of the decisions nowadays taken in NATO, like it or not, have a lot of effect on European Union policies as well. When we talk about how we will spend 3.5% of our GDP – of our national budgets - on defence, it has effects on our economies and, as members know, economic policy, especially in country members of the euro. It has tremendous effects on the economies of each of these member states and, for that reason, on the economy policy of the European Union. The same goes for our industry. If we are going to spend 3.5% of our GDP on arms, ammunition, defence issues and so on, then of course we have to develop our own industry. We do not want to be dependent on the American industry. We do not want to create growth and jobs in the American defence industry. We want to do that in Europe. It is also a matter of supply and getting the right stuff, and getting it when we think we need it. That was the response to the question about Irish neutrality.