EU plays quiet but crucial role in the peace process

Date: 23/05/1996

The next two weeks will be critical in the search for an enduring solution to almost 400 years of conflict in Northern Ireland. Elections to choose delegates to all-party talks take place on 30 May, with the negotiations scheduled to begin on 10 June. John Downing looks at the EU's long-standing but low-key efforts to help end 'the troubles'.

“THE EU put in the money - the US take the glory.”

That is one Dublin-based observer's glib assessment of ten years of efforts by Washington and Brussels to help broker an end to this most enduring of conflicts which dates back to the so-called Plantation of Ulster in 1609.

A seasoned Brussels official resignedly puts in another way. “The US are good at public relations - we're not.”

Yes, even when it comes to Northern Ireland, the Union's patchy PR track record looms large. But there is growing evidence to suggest that the EU role in 'the North' is much underrated - and may yet be seen as the decisive factor in ending the horror of it all.

When the UK and the Republic of Ireland joined the Union, along with Denmark, in 1973, the streets of Belfast and other towns were washed with innocent and not-so-innocent blood. The nationalist civil rights protests of the 1960s had given way, tragically, to paramilitary and military violence.

The Northern Ireland conflict has since continued to find new problems for the many proffered solutions. But the burning desire of most of the region's 1.5 million inhabitants for lasting peace has never been in doubt. That desire is now at its strongest after almost two years of fragile peace following the cease-fires announced in the autumn of 1994.

From the outset, membership of the EU paved the way for a new and more egalitarian relationship between Ireland and the UK.

The Republic, with its 3.5 million people and huge economic problems, had been dwarfed by the UK, with its powerful economy and 56 million inhabitants, since the foundation of the Irish state in 1922. But from 1973 onwards, Dublin began forging new trade and other relations with its fellow EU member states. Trade dependence on the UK, though still important as Ireland's closest neighbour, was cut in half.

More importantly, however, British-Irish relations began to focus on many common EU issues and prime ministers, other senior government leaders and civil servants began to have regular non-pressurised contact on a wide range of topics.

Talks in the margins of EU meetings have more recently played a crucial role in helping to advance the peace process.

The Northern Ireland conflict, however, could never become a centre-stage EU issue. It is, after all, a struggle which involves two member states and is, London will argue, “an internal UK matter”.

Besides, if Brussels became embroiled in the Northern Ireland conflict, why then not also take on the Basque, Corsican or other problems? Clearly, the EU has enough trouble hanging together without actively seeking out reasons for divisions.

By contrast, millions of Irish-American voters in the United States have given Washington a powerful motive to wield its influence in the peace process and the political clout to do so. Its role has been two-fold: putting pressure on London to make concessions, but also on Irish Republican militants to moderate their stance.

However, the clearest evidence of a role for the Union in building bridges came after the British-Irish Agreement in 1985, which led to the creation of the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) financed by the US, the EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Despite some teething troubles, the EU was soon playing a

very active role in the fund, with Commission Deputy Director-General Carlo Trojan serving on its observer group.

In the decade since 1986, the IFI has provided an average of 35 million ecu a year in funding and has played a part in more than 3,200 individual projects in Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic which have suffered great economic hardship because of “the troubles”.

At the start, the EU enjoyed greater confidence among the nationalist community and was viewed with some suspicion by the Unionists.

“They tended to see it as 'green money' with loud American-Irish support. It was suspect for them,” explains one Brussels official involved in the project.

It would be misleading to suggest that these suspicions do not persist. But the IFI board has gone out of its way to include all sectors - involving almost 6,000 community leaders - in its operations.

An independent “reconciliation impact assessment” by consultants KPMG some months ago concluded: “Significant and distinctive contributions have been made to contacts, dialogue and reconciliation, new models of working together have been developed and significant numbers of additional jobs have been created at a reasonable cost.”

The EU's 1995 IFI contribution was 20 million ecu - compared with just 16 million ecu from the US. There were smaller donations from Australia and New Zealand.

But the Union's contribution by no means ends there. The 1994-99 structural fund share-out was very favourable to Ireland - both North and South. The Republic's annual take from all structural funds will average 1.2 billion ecu per year to the end of the decade, while the North is expected to receive 1.1 billion ecu over the same five-year period.

This generous allocation of grants may explain a certain reluctance within the Commission to dig into the EU's pocket once again when the Loyalist paramilitaries announced their cease-fire in October 1994 in the wake of the IRA's announcement of a cessation of violence.

But representations from all sides were very favourably received by outgoing Commission President, Jacques Delors, who quickly became an ardent supporter of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The result was a 300-million-ecu aid package for the North and the Republic's border regions approved in record time and currently being spent to good effect. (see table)

These contributions dwarf the funds which come from the US.

But the EU does more than 'play moneybags'.

The European Parliament has offered a forum for the isolated Northern Ireland community to become involved in mainstream Europe. Its three MEPs, Ulster Unionist, Jim Nicholson, DUP leader Ian Paisley and SDLP leader, John Hume, are extremely active and collaborate well with their 15 Republic of Ireland colleagues.

The Northern Ireland Centre in Europe, with its team of seven headed by Gerry McAlinden, has been in operation for five years and is appropriately located on Avenue des Celtes. Like Scotland Europa and the Wales European Centre, it lobbies on behalf of the region and its people. The most recent addition has been the lobby office for Sinn Féin, the IRA's political wing. This is run by Belfastman, Tony Catney, who shrugs off comparisons between his own party's suspicion of the Union and those of the ruling British Conservative Party.

He says most people - North and South - accept the Union and so, therefore, does Sinn Féin.

But more important than all these physical signs is the potential influence of the EU message that notions of sovereignty are not set in stone for ever. A mediated solution emphasising regional identity and common European citizenship guarantees offers a real hope of lasting peace.

With the ending of customs controls in January 1993, when the EU single market finally became a reality, the only remaining evidence of the Irish border was the security checks. Before the IRA cease-fire was fractured by the London Docklands bomb in February, these too had disappeared.

Few people in the North - of whatever political creed - will readily accept that things can revert to the pre-cease-fire situation.

Clearly, Brussels will never be able to offer any side in the Northern Ireland conflict the kind of political clout that is provided by Washington.

But when the history of the peace process comes to be written - hopefully very soon - the European Union will merit, at the very least, a creditable and lengthy mention.

John Downing is European Editor of the 'Irish Independent'