Ireland will insist on retaining its national veto on tax issues in the negotiations to create a new EU constitution, the Minister for Foreign Affairs told the Dáil.
Mr Cowen said the Government wanted to see a "watertight final text" on this issue. He expressed the State's concern to retain sovereignty on justice issues as well, and Ireland's view that any new arrangements in security and defence areas "should be inclusive and accountable to all member-states".
The Government also supports mentioning God or Europe's Christian heritage in the preamble of the treaty, "should an agreed wording be possible".
Mr Cowen also called for flexibility on institutional concerns. Individual interests of smaller states in particular should be protected but he questioned whether the system set up for six states would work for 25 or more. It "makes no sense to be dogmatic", he said. Most issues did not break down into "big against small" and there were significant differences among the smaller countries.
During a debate on the negotiations of the Inter-Governmental Conference to create the new constitution, Mr Cowen stressed: "Our position is clear - while we will not stand in the way of others, Ireland could only participate in an EU common defence with the prior consent of the people in a referendum."
Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Gay Mitchell, expressed concern that the proposal to appoint a European Council chairman could result in the appointment of a "Giscard or a Baroness Thatcher".
Labour's spokesman, Mr Michael D. Higgins, was disappointed at the failure to rise to the challenge of what a cultural Europe might be. It was seen as an offshoot of the entertainment industry, "somewhere between Michael Flatley and Alexander the Great".
