The importance that the Government attaches to the Seville Declaration is "bogus", the leader of the Socialist Party, Mr Joe Higgins, said today.
At a press conference in Dublin he called the Seville Declaration "a very threadbare fig leaf to cover the militarisation of the EU".
"It [the Seville Declaration] is merely a narrow commitment not to enter a defence alliance promoted by the European Council. There are many more kinds a defence alliances which could be possible," Mr Higgins warned. He accused the government of faking a commitment to neutrality and called the Seville Declaration a very "cynical exercise" because most citizens in the state demand neutrality.
"It is clear the government does not adhere to neutrality when it is prepared to allow the use of Shannon Airport for US military personnel and US war planes in the buildup to the war with Iraq," he said.
Ms Susan Fitzgerald from Youth Against War was also at the press conference. She said: "Youth against War believes that the Nice Treaty further advances a warlike world.
"A vote against Nice would be a signal that the Irish people stood instead for a world where the armaments industry was stood down and the resources diverted to problems of humanity".
