No side in Northern Ireland could claim social victory if there was to be permanent peace, the MEP, Ms Mary Banotti, has said.
In an address yesterday to the MacGill Summer School on the subject "Ireland - North-South, Britain and Europe in the new millennium", she asked what system of government could be agreed between unionists and nationalists that would also command the support of the two governments and be approved in referendums on both sides of the Border.
She said it had to be asked if it was at all possible for an end to British rule in Ireland by unionists who still wanted to be British and would certainly perceive a threat to their heritage by such an end?
The Fine Gael MEP and potential presidential candidate called for mutual respect between nationalists and unionists. "Unionists in the talks will have to accept the necessity of all-Ireland institutions as a recognition of the Northern nationalist identity. Equally, Sinn Fein should recognise that acceptance of their British allegiance is at the very heart of the unionist identity, just as Irish allegiance is at the very heart of the Northern nationalist identity."
Ms Banotti said she believed it was imperative that today's leaders, be they religious, community or political, should work together to create a society which put the welfare of children at its centre.
Saying that this would be a key feature in her presidential campaign if she was selected by her party next month, she added: "If the Ireland of the next millennium is a peaceful and prosperous Ireland, where all its people feel that they are members of a society that respects them and allows them to develop to their full potential, then our current leaders will have achieved something at the end of this millennium which would certainly have been an impossible dream at the start."
The security spokesman for the Ulster Unionist party, Mr Ken Maginnis, who was scheduled to speak last night, contacted the school's organisers yesterday morning to say he had "cancelled all engagements in the South".
A Derry SDLP councillor, Mr Mark Durkan, told the school his party's proposal of a double referendum, North and South, would ensure that new arrangements truly earned the allegiance of both traditions.
"If we agree this form of validation early in negotiations it would generate helpful confidence there. And parties would know that any outcome would have to be able to win endorsements from other constituencies, not just their own."