The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, yesterday declared his support for Mr Dick Spring, former leader of the Labour Party, as a suitable candidate for an important new EU appointment in the field of foreign policy.
Mr Andrews denounced the suggestion by a senior French diplomat that the position should not go to a neutral country.
"I refute it and reject it," Mr Andrews said, arguing that the suggestion implied a form of "two-tier membership" of the EU which he rejected.
Mr Spring, who has yet to declare formally an interest in the job, was nevertheless in Brussels yesterday for briefings on the post and will meet the Austrian Foreign Minister and President of the General Affairs Council, Mr Wolfgang Schussel, today.
The new post, that of Secretary General of the Council of Ministers with responsibility for Foreign and Security Policy, arose out the concerns of EU heads of government, expressed in the run-up to the Amsterdam Treaty, that the EU's foreign policy role should be strengthened.
Mr Andrews defended the possibility of Mr Spring's candidature, "should he want to stand", and said the Government would be "110 per cent" behind him.
Mr Spring had been an "exceptional foreign minister" and should be given the same chance as any other EU national, he said.
The appointment had been due to be made at the Vienna summit next month but is increasingly seen as part of a package of senior appointments which will be made in the spring and summer of next year.
Mr Andrews described as "very strange" the suggestion that "not being a member of NATO would preclude us from the job".
The Minister was responding to comments from the French ambassador to the EU, Mr Pierre de Boissieu, in an off-the-record briefing to journalists on Friday when he is reported as having said that it would be "crazy" to appoint a non-WEU or non-NATO country's nominee to the job.
The French are strongly committed to the incorporation of the Western European Union (WEU) into the EU, and the ambassador is said to have added that the EU foreign and security policy post was likely one day soon to be merged with that of the secretary general of the WEU.
However, soundings among diplomats here are understood to have produced significant support for the Irish candidate among more than the small member-states.
Mr Andrews yesterday also reported a successful bilateral meeting with the new German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, a member of the Green Party, who expressed considerable interest in Irish ideas on a UN initiative on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
