Mr. Barry Andrews:

Yes, there are safeguards, not only in the EU treaties, but also in the Irish Constitution, whereby we are obliged in the exercise of foreign policy to comply with international law. The European Union is bound by customary international law and international humanitarian law and is a signatory to many of the conventions that govern the conduct of and the decision to deploy troops. For example, the UN mandated the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but many European countries decided not to deploy any troops to Iraq, quite rightly. Although there was a UN mandate, Ireland also took the sensible decision to have nothing to do with that. It is dangerous to demonise the European Union.