Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

Most of the discussions with my Swedish and Finnish counterparts were not about battlegroups, they were about the civilian response in the aftermath of the tsunami. After expressing my sympathy, particularly to the Swedish people, most of the discussion involved trying to examine the need for the EU to be prepared, from a civilian point of view, to deal with this concept and, if necessary, to use its military capability, not from an aggressive point of view, but from the point of view of what is happening in Sri Lanka. Our military personnel are currently out there helping the people to build up their road infrastructure and so on. We also discussed the issue of the EU mandate. I made it quite clear that this was our position, and remains so. They have a slightly different view in this regard. I do not wish to get involved in using tags. The Deputy may wish to use descriptions.

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