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| From: Irish Foreign Affairs: Editorials |
| Date: July, 2009 |
| By: Editorial |
| Title: Danzig and the Start of the Second World War |
| Seventy years ago the British Empire made use of the anomalous position of the City of Danzig, between Germany and Poland, to provide the occasion for launching a World War. The Danzig anomaly was created by Britain in 1919. Its only purpose could have been to make mischief. If might have been made part of either the Polish State or the German State. Instead of that it was made a point of contention between them.Read Full Article |
| From: Irish Foreign Affairs: Editorials |
| Date: July, 2009 |
| By: Editorial |
| Title: The end of an Irish Foreign Policy? |
| An Bord Snip [Irish Government’s Expenditure Review Committee] recommended: “A significant proportion of the Department for Foreign Affairs expenditure is in respect of overseas missions, most of which are small. Given the potential for developing synergies between DFA and agencies such as Enterprise Ireland, Tourism Ireland and An Bord Bia as well as the potential establishment of a European External Action Service in the event of the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, the Group recommends that the network of embassies and consulates be reduced from 76 to 55. The Group also recommends that Ambassador posts routinely be graded at Principal Officer level, with only the three or four largest missions graded at Assistant Secretary level as compared with the 41 ambassadors who are currently of Assistant Secretary grade or higher. The Group notes that the Foreign Service Allowance is not taxable nor is it subject to the pension levy or income levy and recommends that it be reduced by 12.5% in recognition of the contributions made by those serving in other areas of the public service.” There was no opposition evident to this proposal and therefore it is likely to go ahead.Read Full Article |
| From: Irish Foreign Affairs: Articles |
| Date: July, 2009 |
| By: John Temple Lang & Eamon Gallagher |
| Title: Essential Steps for the European Union after the 'No' Votes in France, the Netherlands and Ireland |
| [The authors are both former senior officials of the EU. John Temple Lang is a lawyer and a former Director responsible for telecommunications and media in the Competition Directorate General of the European Commission. He was a Director there beginning in 1988, and from 1974 to 1988 he was in the Legal Service of the European Commission, dealing primarily with competition law issues. Eamonn Gallagher is a former Director General in the European Commission and former EC Ambassador to the United Nations, New York. He played a key role in Irish diplomatic affairs over several decades and died earlier this year. Both were committed supporters of the European project but have serious reservations on the direction taken in recent years with the lessening of the power of the Commisssion and the growing power of the nation states and the replacement of the ‘community method’ by the intergovermental method of dealing with issues. This paper, which they prepared for the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), is limited to the technical aspects of the changes and does not draw out the full political implications of what these mean – or why they have come about. However, this is an important contribution to the debate and the implications of the changes for Foreign Policy are highlighted in a very useful way.] Biographical note by Jack LaneRead Full Article |
| From: Irish Foreign Affairs: Articles |
| Date: January, 2009 |
| By: Feargus O Raghallaigh |
| Title: Cowed By EU Globalism |
| Brian Cowen came back from Brussels on 12th December 2008 with a package of "legal guarantees" in response to The Statement of Concerns of the Irish People on the Treaty of Lisbon which he had brought with him. The deal with Sarkozy was set out in the EU "Presidency Conclusions" which committed the European Council to finding a legal means to enable it, while implementing the Lisbon Treaty, to retain a Commissioner for each member state and provide "protocols" in relation to Irish neutrality, national sovereignty in the area of taxation policy, the "right to life, education and the family" and workers' rights. All of this was on condition of the Irish Government "seeking ratification of the Treaty of the Lisbon by the end of the term of the current Commission". The mechanism offered to secure these "legal guarantees", according to Sarkozy, would be legislation attached to the next enlargement Treaty, presumed to be that for Croatia in 2010 or 2011 (See Cowen/Sarkozy Lisbon Deal: The Primacy of Politics over Legalism, Irish Political Review, February 2009) Read Full Article |
| From: Irish Foreign Affairs: Articles |
| Date: January, 2009 |
| By: Philip O'Connor |
| Title: European Commission: Answer to the Globalist Crisis |
| The European Commission recently pronounced on the international financial and economic crisis for the benefit of the Spring Council of Ministers and the G20 meeting scheduled for 2nd April (Communication for the European Council, Driving European recovery, 4th March 2009 - Read Full Article |