Tuesday 12 August 2008

"What Georgia means for Europe"

I don't normally 'do' Comment-is-free (barrels, fish and all that), but this one, via Denis Cooper, is priceless:

Which returns me to the Irish referendum. Whatever the Irish thought they were voting on, the Russian military threat wasn't on the radar screen when they recently went to the polls to say 'no' to Europe. But Georgia has decisively placed the security question on the agenda - raising the stakes, and putting a great deal of responsibility on Ireland to reach an accommodation with the rest of Europe that will allow the Union to move forward without another period of anxious renegotiation.

Wasn't one of the (many) reasons for the Irish 'No' the fact that the idea of an EU-Army goes against their desire to remain militarily neutral? Why would it make the slightest teensiest scrap of difference to what Russia thinks or does whether a militarily neutral country with a population of less than 1% of the EU's total at the very Western edge of Europe is lukewarm about further EU 'integration'?

1 comments:

Simon Fawthrop said...

If security really was a concern they would be turning to NATO and not the EU.

Leaving that ignroance aside, what makes him think that Russia would single out Eire for invasion?