Funferal

Neutrality and the EU

Despite some of the positive contributions of the EU I’m generally suspicious of its structures and processes. Partly for this reason the proposed EU constitution is becoming less and less attractive, and now another reason to oppose it:

At a meeting in Naples (29 November) the three big countries agreed to create an independent planning division at the headquarters of the EU’s military staff and supported the idea of a mutual defence clause, modelled on NATO.

Although the story reports that the proposed mutual defence pact would be rejected by the non-aligned/neutral states – such as Ireland – it appears now that the militant/military states have actually won the battle over what wording to include. Defence sounds like such a positive thing – which is why Departments of War were renamed Departments of Defence – but the implications in terms of militarisation (Ireland is already spending large sums ‘upgrading’ military hardware) and, more notably, the creation of regional military-enforced power blocs, is frightening for our shared global future.