Ms SILE de Valera's remarks about Ireland's relationship with the EU took EU officials in Brussels by surprise yesterday and provoked speculation that the speech could signal a shift in the Government's policy towards Europe.
Many officials were unsure about how to interpret the speech, with some expressing the view that it may have been "kite-flying" inspired by Ms de Valera's Fianna Fail colleagues.
"I wouldn't think it will have any lasting impact unless it is followed by a series of salvoes against the Brussels bureaucracy," said one senior Commission source.
Ms de Valera's criticism of the effect of some EU directives on Irish life raised eyebrows in Brussels, where her Department has been censured for its slowness in implementing directives to safeguard wildlife. The Commission threatened earlier this year to delay structural funds to Ireland unless Ms de Valera's Department enforced the EU Habitats Directive.
The directive designates areas of conservation to protect endangered species. Ms de Valera has established an elaborate appeals process for landowners whose property includes a prospective conservation area.
"This was a very difficult issue that she was dealing with and it has been a political issue within her own constituency. But the Irish Government signed up to all these directives in the Council of Ministers with full knowledge of what they were doing," the Commission source said.
Some European analysts view Ms de Valera's intervention as part of a broader trend within European politics which has seen many conservative parties become increasingly critical of the concept of closer political integration.
"I wouldn't compare her to any political family but there's a common populist thread that runs through the arguments of politicians on the more conservative wing of politics, not just in Ireland but in other countries," ail and the Progressive Democrats are raising this issue at a time when conservative parties in other countries and outside them to their right there are more and more outspoken populist currents espousing some of the same ideas," said said Mr John Palmer, director of the European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank.
Ms de Valera received the backing yesterday of the Fianna Fail members of the European Parliament. They praised her intervention as a useful contribution to an open debate about Ireland's relationship with the EU.
Mr Gerard Collins, the leader of the Fianna Fail MEPs, said that any changes which were brought about within the EU must command the support of European citizens.
"The debate about the European Union is broken up into two key aspects. One is the debate on economic integration and second is the debate on political union. The vast majority of political organisations in Europe and member-state governments support economic integration. The problems arise in Europe when people debate about the need for a closer political union," he said.
The debate over closer political integration in Europe has intensified in recent months following speeches by the German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, and the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, outlining rival visions of political union.
Ireland is not generally perceived as being among the EU member-states that favour political integration but Mr Palmer believes that, in rejecting political union, Irish politicians are making a serious miscalculation.
"I think that is a big, tragic mistake. If enlargement is not accompanied by closer integration, the risk is that the small countries will lose out. It's only by strengthening the Union's decision-making capacity that the small countries can ensure that there isn't too great an influence exercised by the big countries."
