Madam,- I welcome debate stimulated by the articles on Irish neutrality (November 25th-27th).
I am happy to provide the primary evidence base and secondary sources for the alleged inaccuracies raised by Daniel Keohane in his letter (December 2nd) concerning my article (November 27th), several of which are based on misinterpretation and a failure to read the article accurately.
Mr Keohane claims that the article is inaccurate by stating that the EU operation in Congo in 2003 was a Berlin Plus mission.
I refer to the article, which clearly states that Operation Artemis in the Congo was launched in June 2003 "without the use of the Berlin Plus formula".
Mr Keohane claims it is inaccurate to say that Ireland was not invited to join Nato and asserts that Ireland was invited to join. While there were informal discussions over the question of Irish membership, as the US had access to bases in Northern Ireland for Nato purposes, no formal invitation was ever extended to Ireland to join.
Mr Keohane claims that I suggested that six neutral member states sought to eliminate the mutual assistance article in the Lisbon Treaty.
What the article actually said was that the representatives of neutral states at the Convention of Europe were against "maximalist ESDP", such as permanent structured co-operation and sought to eliminate the binding mutual defence clause.
I refer Mr Keohane to one such example of Swedish Convention members' proposed amendment of Article I-40 (of the then Constitutional Treaty) by Lena Hjelm-Wallén and Sven-Olof Petersson and Sören Lekberg.
Contrary to Mr Keohane's interpretation, the article never attributed the "Defence G6" proposal to the French government; for clarification, the article described Defence G6 as a concept to illustrate what is allowed under the new Permanent Structured Co-operation envisaged in the Lisbon Treaty.
Mr Keohane claims that the article stated the Berlin Plus agreement between the EU and Nato was agreed in 1994. The article did not say this. The article said that Nato decided to develop the combined joint task force (CJTF) concept to allow the EU to borrow Nato assets for EU operations.
I refer Mr Keohane to the primary evidence of point 6 of the Nato Communique M-1(94)3 issued after the North Atlantic Council (NAC) meeting that took place on 10th-11th January 1994 in Brussels.
The concept of borrowing Nato assets linked to the development of the CJTF concept was subsequently agreed on 3rd June 1996 at a North Atlantic Council meeting held in Berlin and hence called the "Berlin Plus" agreement.
I refer Mr Keohane to the primary evidence in point 6 of the Nato Ministerial Communique M-NAC-1(96)63 (and secondary source of Webber in Howorth and Keeler, 2003, p162).
These developments took place in the context of the European Union's request that the Western European Union (WEU) "elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the Union which have defence implications" under article J.4(2) of the 1992 (Maastricht) Treaty on European Union.
Mr Keohane asserts that Ireland has a veto over any future common defence proposals.
The article points out that the Lisbon Treaty contains the concept of "Constructive Abstention" that is designed to bypass potential vetoes of neutral member states over, for example, future large-state "permanent structured co-operation" missions.
I refer Mr Keohane to the primary evidence of a Maltese Convention member's proposed amendment of Article II-196 (ex Art 9) by George Vella (see also secondary source of Jones, 2007 p. 71) for this interpretation.
Finally, with reference to the point raised by Daragh McDowell (December 3rd) that Ireland was cut off from Marshall Plan funding due to her neutrality, I can confirm that Ireland was accepted into the Marshall Plan by the US and Britain and received Marshall Plan Aid of $146.2 million in loans and grants (see Wylie, 2006 p.40).
As outlined in the first article, the historical record shows that the primary motive of security underpinned Eamon de Valera's policy of Irish neutrality before and during the second World War (see for example, Dáil Éireann volume 76, column 981 and volume 77, columns 269-270).
On the basis of the primary evidence cited, backed up by reliable secondary sources, I stand over the accuracy of the fact-base supporting the articles. - Is mise le meas,
Dr KAREN DEVINE,
IRCHSS Postdoctoral Fellow,
School of Law and Government,
Dublin City University,
Dublin 9.