The European Union is the economic, social and political area where Ireland will function for the foreseeable future.

The real question for us, therefore, is what sort of Europe do we want and how, in conjunction with people in other European countries, do we shape that Europe.

As with most things in life, there are two opposing views. Euro-sceptics in Ireland and Britain have always wanted to confine Europe to a common market: a free trade area for competing national economies and international companies but with no economic co-operation, no social dimension, and no democratic controls.

On the other hand, progressive governments, unions and social organisations have sought to move beyond a common market and to develop the European social model.

This model would be built around a European social market economy, where development is based on social as well as economic progress and where the social partners play a key role in supervising the free market.

European countries will co-operate to compete with the best in the world through high productivity, high levels of quality and high social standards.

Modernising and deepening the European social model and extending its benefits, in particular its provisions on fundamental human rights and minimum social standards, to those people escaping from behind the Iron Curtain to rejoin Europe is now a priority.

We must see the Nice Treaty within this context.

Like the outcome of all negotiations, the Nice Treaty is far from perfect.

In evaluating the treaty, you must look at the practical achievements and shortcomings of the European Union, and, given where you want Europe and Ireland to go in the future, look at the advantages of adopting this treaty as against the disadvantages.

In drawing up that balance sheet, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which represents more than 600,000 workers, has concluded that Europe and the Nice Treaty are good for Irish workers and their families, good for workers in other European countries and good for workers in those countries which now want to rejoin Europe.

We would, of course, have preferred stronger provisions in the Nice Treaty to make the EU institutions more publicly accountable.

Ireland's influence in Europe has, through the European Commission, far outweighed its size or economic capacity and so we would have preferred if the Government had fought harder to retain a commissioner for each country.

We also wanted the Government to support the incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the treaty.

These shortcomings in the Nice Treaty are outweighed by the enormous benefits that Ireland and Irish workers will continue to gain from an enlarged Europe.

Without the EU, we would not have the growth, the prosperity and the number of jobs we have gained in recent years. The Nice Treaty, in clearing the way for enlargement, provides this country with potential access to an expanded market for goods and services that should ensure our growth and prosperity will continue.

The working conditions of workers in this State, but in particular of women and part-time workers, have improved enormously because of policy initiatives and directives at EU level. Europe has given us equal pay, reductions in working time, improved rights for part-time and temporary workers, parental leave.

In the 1980s, the social agenda in Europe and, as a consequence, in Ireland, ground to a halt.

The rules in Brussels, at that time, provided that all improvements in social rights must have the support of each member-state.

Under these unanimity rules, Margaret Thatcher used her vote to block all developments.

The Nice Treaty, by clearing the way for majority voting, will enable a better balance to be struck between free markets and globalisation and the rights of workers, pensioners and consumers. The potential benefits of the Nice Treaty and subsequent enlargement for workers in the applicant countries is well illustrated by the support of all the unions in those countries for the treaty.

According to Solidarnosc (the Polish Trade Union Centre): "The Nice Treaty gives hope for economic, social, political and cultural co-operation and, if adopted, will give us evidence that when the barbed wires of the Cold War were cut in our region some 10 years ago, it was not done in vain."

As all internationalists know, it is tremendously heartening to see workers from 27 countries marching shoulder to shoulder, under the banner of the European Trade Union Confederation, for better social rights instead of fighting each other, in the name of nationalism, across the trenches of Europe.

The European Trade Union Confederation, which represents more than 60 million workers, also supports the Nice Treaty as another step on the road to developing a more inclusive and fairer European Union.

It is well aware of the shortcomings of the treaty, the need for ongoing reform of the European Union and, in an increasingly globalised economy, the need to revitalise and reform the European social model.

It welcomes the fact that Ireland, as a more prosperous and confident nation, is now in a position to contribute in a substantial way to this debate and influence the future shape of a peaceful and prosperous Europe. The Nice Treaty is part of the process that can make this dream a reality.

The Czech President, Mr Vaclav Havel, put it succinctly in this newspaper last week: "This process clearly represents a great chance for Europe, which has never had such an opportunity in its history until now, and I would certainly support such a process as an Irishman, just as I do so as a Czech."

Peter Cassells is general secretary, Irish Congress of Trade Unions

Tomorrow: Denis Staunton on the economic hopes and challenges for the applicant states

All articles in the series New Economy New Europe can be found at www.ireland.com