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ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY ROBINSON to C.A.R.I, BUENOS AIRES 22 March 1994

"IRELAND IN EUROPE - A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE"

I am honoured to be here, and to speak to such a distinguished audience on Ireland's experience within Europe. In choosing that topic, I get the very welcome chance to tell you about the country I represent - an Ireland very far away from here, but with strong human links with Argentina, and which seems to me to have a wonderful and compelling story.

I thought it particularly appropriate to give you some indications of the impact on the modern Ireland of our membership of two important European bodies: the Council of Europe, of which we were a founder member in 1949, and the European Union, of which we have been a member since 1973.

I am aware that Argentina has been playing a leading role in moves to develop closer co-operation in this region of Latin America. As a founder member of the RIO Group, which has helped to underpin the consolidation of democracy on the continent, Argentina is, I know, an active and enthusiastic member of Mercosur, whose purpose is to establish a common market among its member countries. As you embark on that important initiative it may be helpful to tell you of Ireland's experience as a small country actively participating in somewhat similar initiatives at the European level.

Of course, Ireland has always had very close links with continental Europe, which in itself is a common bond with Argentina which had its own strong historic links with Europe.

There was a golden age from about the 6th to 10th century when Irish monks and scholars travelled to various parts of Europe - to what is now France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium - bringing back the light and learning of Christianity to a dark war-torn continent. Ireland enjoyed a reputation at the time as the island of saints and scholars, and the legacy of that period is still visible in monasteries and monuments throughout Western Europe.

Today, as a founder member of the Council of Europe and as a member of the European Community for over twenty years, we have found our way back - as a sovereign nation - to that Europe we once contributed to so strongly. We have found our way back, I may say, after a turbulent history. But that only enriches our sense of the new context. We bring to that European context a keen sense of the individualities - of language and culture and identity - which were so precious and so painful for the Irish people to cling to and define.

Within that wider grouping of European countries Ireland has certain distinctive historical features. We never went out to far-flung areas of the world to establish an empire or colony, but rather we ourselves had a long experience as a colony, and of striving for independence. We belong to what has been characterised as a rich man's club of countries, and yet we have a folk memory of the potato famine which devastated Ireland in the middle of the last century. This year, we in Ireland, and Irish people throughout the world, begin to commemorate the 150th anniversary of that famine. What subliminal efforts do such past experiences have on the perspective and approach of ordinary people in contemporary Ireland? What impact on our attitude to developing countries, to countries ravaged by famine or drought? These are difficult questions, and there is a temptation to simplify. Suffice it to say that Ireland has produced a disproportionate number of voluntary aid workers and that ordinary Irish people contribute disproportionately to Irish and international aid agencies working in developing countries. Our own painful historical experience may have made us better listeners, more receptive to the suffering of others.

Our more recent experience has been shaped by and has helped to shape the two significant institutional frameworks linking Western European nations together, the Council of Europe and the European Union. The potential influence of the older European grouping, the Council of Europe, with its machinery for the protection and enforcement of human rights, is particularly significant for the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. For these countries the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its case law represent the standard to be attained in reforming their legal systems. At the present time the Convention has been ratified by thirty four European countries and is fast becoming a truly pan European system. There is a keen recognition in Ireland of the need to reach out to and support the emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe in building up their democratic participatory structures and their adherence to human rights standards.

Last month I took part in a conference organised by the Council of Europe in preparation for the World Conference on Women to be held in Beijing in September. It focused particularly on issues of equality and human rights and democratic participation of women at all levels. There was a lively discussion on the concept of "parity equality" which would involve devising ways and means of seeking to ensure that since women represent 50% of populations they could also hold 50% of the seats in democratic institutions. As yet there is no agreement on this question, but you can see that it is quite a radical concept. While in Strasbourg I also noted that the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Minority Rights is now open for signature and provides an important framework for protecting ethnic and other minorities within the European member states.

I turn now to the second European institutions which has had a profound impact on the modern Ireland - the European Union. When we joined in 1973 there were nine member states, and since January of this year, when Sweden, Austria and Finland joined, there are now fifteen members of the Union.

Ireland benefited politically, economically and culturally from our membership of the European Union. The political benefit included an improvement in Ireland's bilateral relations with Britain which became a member at the same time. The fact that both countries were partners with other European countries in the European Community provided opportunities for ministers to meet each other regularly and to work together in that context. The European framework has also helped the present initiatives to provide a framework for securing the peace in Northern Ireland.

The economic benefits to us have been significant: Ireland was able to diversify its export markets away from an over-dependency on the British market through a rapid development of exports to other European countries. Being part of a wider European single market of some 370 million has greatly helped Ireland's attractiveness as a location for international investment. More than a thousand companies - many from North America - have located in Ireland in order to have access to the European market.

And culturally Ireland has been stimulated by the experience of closer association with other European countries with which we have always had strong links. There is vitality and creativity in all the art forms in Ireland which many attribute to the stimulus of this European experience, and the reality that Irish identity is stronger because it is grounded on a positive sense of Ireland as a European country, freeing it to an extent from the historical burden of the relationship with Britain.

Overall, the European Union has served its member states, including Ireland, very well. The member states, by pooling their resources, have been able to achieve more, acting in concert, than they could have accomplished individually. As well as creating the conditions for greater prosperity, economic integration has increasingly fostered a wider sense of mutual interdependence, shared destiny and solidarity.

It is understandable, therefore, why Ireland has adopted a very positive approach to the development of the European Union. In three different national referenda the Irish people have demonstrated a clear desire to be part of the Union and to take the process further. In 1996 the European Union will hold an Intergovernmental Conference with a daunting task. It must chart a course for the Union's future as it prepares to open its doors to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Ireland will have an important role to play in that process, holding, as it will at the time, the Union's presidency.

For more than four decades it has been clear that the division of Europe between East and West was both unnatural and unstable. Now for the first time this century all of the countries of Europe are free to decide how their societies should be structured and how their relations should be conducted.

But let us all be clear about the immediate future - the old Europe, the Europe of the Cold War has gone. But the new Europe has not yet been built, and in this transitional phase we are living through, tensions and problems can be expected.

I sense that here in Latin America there is also an awareness of the need to strengthen the potential of the whole region through developing appropriate regional institutions. It is a difficult but very worthwhile endeavour, and it is clear that Argentina is playing a leading role in developing close co-operation in the region through the Rio group and the establishment of Mercosur. In the light of Ireland's experience in Europe, I am confident that Mercosur will benefit Argentina and its other participants.

Ireland and Argentina must respond to the challenges our regions will pose with innovation and imagination. And when imagination fails us we must fall back on persistence and determination.

Above all, we must reach out with openness to the new opportunities for the future. To quote Seamus Heaney, one of Ireland's most distinguished poets:

"For last year's worlds belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice".

We must not fail in this endeavour. Future generations are vulnerable to the priorities we establish. And they will judge us on the decision we take.