EU Commissioner Mr David Byrne today urged the Irish electorate not to use the Nice vote as a protest against some aspect of the EU if they believed in principle in the spirit of the project.
Speaking at a conference in Dublin organised by the Irish Charities Tax Reform Group, Mr Byrne said Nice was a modest treaty that suffered, if anything, from "a lack of ambition".
He said its endorsement would not fundamentally alter Ireland's position within the union.
Mr Byrne said it was paradoxical that federalists in Europe and the No camp in Ireland should reject it for completely opposite reasons.
Federalists in Europe, he maintained, complain the treaty has not gone far enough in changing the way the institutions are run.
He said the treaty was necessary to facilitate enlargement but did little to further the process.
Without some of the changes in the treaty the process, he said, would get "bogged down" and the EU Parliament would be in danger of becoming a mere "talking shop".
Mr Byrne said one of the disturbing aspects of campaign was "people's uncertainty as why we are part of EU".
This, he said, highlighted the fact that for so long there has been an absence of any real debate about the EU in Ireland.
He described this as a "benign neglect". He urged people to vote Yes if they valued Ireland's position in the EU.
