By Henrietta Billings - 28th July 2005
The EU has welcomed the IRA's announcement that the paramilitary group is to end a 36 year armed struggle against British rule in Northern Ireland.
European Parliament President Josep Borrell said the IRA's Thusrday statement as an "important step forward in the long-lasting peace process".
"At the time where the countries of the EU join their efforts to fight together terrorism which strikes their own land, it is a capital decision," he said.
"No sustainable solution to conflicts can be found with the use of violence."
The IRA said in at statement that it would now use democratic means only to pursue irepublican aims, a move that could pave the way for a reveival of devolved government in the province, suspended since 2002.
Repulican leader, and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said the move was a "courageous and confident initiative".
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the statment as a "step of unparalleled magnitude".
On Thursday the IRA announced an end to paramilitary activity and called on its members to "dump arms".
Catholic and Protestant clerics will be invited witness the decommissioning of weapons, a process that will be verified by an international disarmament body.
The UK government is expected to announce plans to dismantle an army watchtower in the province as part of a scale back to the British security presence following the IRA's announcement.
Proof that the IRA is ending its campaign of violence could help restore the Stormont power-sharing assembly in Northern Ireland.
The power-sharing assembly and executive at Stormont was suspended in October 2002 after police alleged the IRA had renewed its activity after a 1997 ceasefire.
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