Maurice Hayes (Independent)

It is a great privilege to join in the welcome extended to the ambassador, Mr. Bruton. The warmth of the welcome is an expression of appreciation of the work he has done throughout his life in regard to Europe and elsewhere. He should not worry about not being in Who's Who in Ireland. I regard the omission as another indicator of his great distinction.

I was interested in Mr. Bruton's reply to a point raised, perhaps slightly flippantly, by Senator Norris. It is refreshing that we should hear these matters in language which we understand. It was an inspired appointment of the European Union to send a politician such as Mr. Bruton to Washington. While I have the highest regard for our diplomatic service and for diplomats generally, one of the problems in Europe was that diplomats regarded this as something that they talked about between themselves and did not bring the politicians into it and that is the reason we now have the difficulty of engaging the people of Europe. I was interested in Mr. Bruton's proposal of an elected President, which he has advocated in other places.

I wish to ask two questions, one of which concerns the way Mr. Bruton does his work. He is representing Europe and European countries have their own ambassadors in America. Some of them believe they have a special relationship with America, some believe it is a specially good relationship while others take some pride in having a specially bad relationship. Does that complicate life for Mr. Bruton and how does he manage that transition?

My other question concerns the extent to which, if it is true, that the Americans think of the European Union as NATO at play. Does that create a difficulty? It creates difficulties in Ireland where we do not want Europe to be seen as NATO. It is a question of the interaction between American expectations regarding what one might call the military-security front and the political front.