The EU contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process was unquantifiable but crucial in underpinning dialogue and cross-community contacts, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, told MEPs. Thanking the Union for its support, both financial and political, she emphasised the ongoing precariousness of the process and the need for continued "substantial" support from the Union.
There were reports on the Belfast Agreement and thanks from Dr Mowlam, as the Commission President, Mr Jacques Santer, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, were warmly welcomed by the European Parliament plenary here with only the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, attacking the deal as a betrayal of those who had died at the hands of terrorists.
The Ulster Unionist, Mr Jim Nicholson, called strongly for support for the deal although he complained that the Socialists had failed to agree terms for a common resolution. The disagreement is understood to have related to language on decommissioning. Dr Mowlam paid special tribute to the novel mechanisms of the EU's £400 million Peace and Reconciliation Fund in involving up to 200,000 people across the North in projects involving reconciliation. Speaking to journalists she acknowledged the need to keep in place the networks created by the fund. Mr Andrews told MEPs that "throughout the negotiations the Irish Government has been inspired both by the European ideal and by the concrete achievements of the Union. We are deeply appreciative of the crucial role that the Union has played preparing the ground for the agreement."
The President of the Commission spoke of his delight at the agreement and its European significance. The reconciliation of conflict , he said , was part of "our raison d'etre".
"The Peace and Reconciliation Fund has been a laboratory for new forms of co-operation and implementation of our structural fund programmes and a source of inspiration on the next programming period.
"In future we will continue to support social and economic regeneration in Northern Ireland as we have in the past," he said. "I am confident that working with both governments, all the political parties and all strands of opinion, we will be able to find new ways of supporting the fresh opportunities which an agreement can bring."
Many speakers paid tribute to Mr John Hume, who spoke for the parliament's largest group, the Socialists. He praised the generosity of Union support and many of those involved, notably the speed with which the former president of the Commission, Mr Jacques Delors, had asked following the first ceasefire in 1994, "what can we do to help?".
Commissioners had contributed substantially by coming to talk to people directly, he said, even when things were going wrong.
"We have a historic opportunity for a new beginning . . . in which there is no victory for either side," he said. "In a divided society victories are not solutions." Mr Gerry Collins (FF/Union for Europe) said he hoped that the Parliament would agree to commend the agreement to the voters of both parts of the country.
Ms Mary Banotti (FG/European Party) said that the agreement marked the beginning, not the end, of a long and tortuous process. Now they faced the challenge of bridging the "boundaries of the mind". And she paid particular tribute to the role of the women of Northern Ireland.
Mr Pat Cox (Ind/Liberals) said that the agreement represented the best hope in a generation for a peace based on mutual respect. Overwhelming support in a referendum, he said, would be the best answer to those who claimed legitimacy for their violence.
Ms Nuala Ahern (Green) said the agreement transcended the "narrow confines of nationalism, whether of the Irish or British variety. I hope that in time we can develop a set of political arrangements where identity and territory are no longer the defining ideologies of state-building."
Mr Jim Nicholson (UUP/ Europe of the Nations Group) paid tribute to the people of the North, who had endured so much, and to the RUC and the British army "who stood between sanity and oblivion. They have never received the credit they deserve."
Many problems remained, he said, particularly on decommissioning - "not one bullet, not one ounce of Semtex" had been handed in. But the future was in the hands of the people of Northern Ireland with a settlement that he did not regard as "interim" but "permanent".
The Rev Ian Paisley (DUP/Ind) said he rose to speak on behalf of those who had no voice in Northern Ireland now, those who had been butchered and killed by paramilitaries, "the IRA and other so-called loyalist groups".
He attacked the proposed prisoner releases which, he said, would mean "unreformed terrorists" returning to the streets within 24 months with "access to the greatest terrorist arsenal in the whole of the western world". How could that be squared, he asked, with the decision of the South not to release people who had murdered gardai? What is the difference between these and RUC men who fought and died to guard the people of Northern Ireland?
Mr Pat "the Cope" Gallagher (FF/Union for Europe) said that the EU should help the peace process by creating a new cross-border Objective One area to ensure maximum funding for the Border counties.
Mr John Cushnahan (FG/European People's Party) said everyone would have some reservations about the agreement but the alternative to accepting it was the prospect of 20 years more violence and death, 20 years of talking which would only produce an agreement like this.
Dr Mowlam, summing up the debate, paid tribute to the RUC. Many people from both communities, she said responding to Dr Paisley, had lost family and friends to the violence. But what kept her going was precisely letters from many of those people, letters which urged her to press ahead so that others would not have to suffer as they had.
