UN: The United Nations should be the "rock" on which all action in the Iraqi crisis was based and he could not "in conscience" support some other forms of action, the President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, has said in Dublin.
In an impromptu speech after he received the European of the Year award of the European Movement, Mr Cox said: "We have got to make sure, whatever happens in the coming days and weeks, that the United Nations, its charter, its Security Council and the values upon which it is founded, is the rock upon which all action itself shall be founded. Absent that, in conscience, I could not support some of the things now being contemplated."
Describing Iraq as "the hard question of today", Mr Cox said:
"I believe how the Iraqi crisis is handled, and whichever way it goes in the next several weeks, will have a lasting influence for years and perhaps decades to come on the conduct of international public policy." He recalled that the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, had recently said that the world body was "pacific but not pacifist".
Mr Cox said: "The European Union is pacific but not pacifist." He believed this was true also of the Irish Constitution. The European Parliament and the EU as a whole were "committed to the multilateral and not the unilateral". The EU's vision was "global and not partitioned".
He added: "We have a duty to develop a European approach and to further European values and I daresay, because it matters, European interests also."
Europeans, with their solidarity commitments, their multilateralism and their network of international relationships "must be more determined than most to use all the multilateral means available for effective, United Nations-led multilateral response to global challenge".
He added: "Citizens of Europe, including the 100,000 who marched here and the millions who marched elsewhere, are looking to European leadership for a lead." He said a "big lie" had been told in the last Nice referendum campaign, that the development of the EU meant saying "goodbye" to the UN. That was a lie and the Iraqi debate proved it.
In an implicit reference to recent remarks by France's President Jacques Chirac, and noting that the audience included ambassadors from states in the process of joining the EU, Mr Cox said he did not agree with those who "in recent days" raised new questions about enlargement.
"The time to deliver has come and our Union must grow at the earliest stage from 15 to 25." There should be no new qualifications or preconditions.
Afterwards, the French Ambassador, Mr Gabriel de Bellescize, said: "President Cox's speech was very important because what he said is that we have to make use of whatever happens in the EU to make progress. There might have been differences about Iraq or the Middle East but, in fact, it has to be useful for us in the future."
Presenting the European of the Year award to Mr Cox, the Taoiseach said he looked forward to working closely with him during Ireland's EU presidency in the first half of next year. Mr Ahern said he took "great pride" that the presidency of the parliament was held by an Irishman of such ability.
Noting that the Convention on the Future of Europe was looking at "a number of fundamental questions", Mr Ahern said: "Ireland will play its part in trying to facilitate the institutional reforms that are necessary to enable the Union to do its job."
As president of the European Movement Ireland, he was "justifiably proud" of its work, particularly in helping to generate a deeper understanding of the issues at the heart of the Nice Treaty during last year's referendum.