Seanad debates

Thursday, 12 September 2002

An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Fiche ar an mBunreacht, 2002: An Dara Céim. Twenty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 2002: Second Stage.

 

It was interesting to hear the Finnish Prime Minister today reveal something concerning neutrality of which some of us were not aware. We are all very much aware of the concept of the Rapid Reaction Force. There is a view on the "No" side that suggests that we, as a small country, are somehow being sucked into a super-military European state. The interesting revelation was that the initiative for crisis management under the Petersberg Tasks that eventually led to the Helsinki Declaration of 1999 came from neutral Finland and Sweden, not militaristic Britain, France, Germany or otherwise. That is another myth that has been disassembled.

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