The Convention on the Future of Europe has opened in Brussels with an unequivocal call from its chairman for the drafting of a European constitution.
Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing urged the 105 members of the convention to seek consensus on a single proposal to be sent to EU leaders for approval.
"If we were to reach consensus on this point, we would thus open the way towards a constitution for Europe. To avoid any disagreement over semantics, let us agree now to call it 'a constitutional treaty for Europe'," he said.
The Government's representative at the convention, Mr Ray MacSharry, poured cold water over the suggestion, however, arguing that the existing treaties formed an adequate constitutional basis for the EU. He said the treaties should be simplified and clarified but their essential meaning should not change.
"Europe has served us well so far and what we want to do is build on that success, build on that progress rather than seek to undermine it as people might suggest in going too far about a new constitution for a united Europe, a European state. That is not going to happen. It is no harm, as Giscard himself said, to dream of that kind of result. But I'm a realist," Mr MacSharry said.
There was an unusual air of excitement in the European Parliament's debating chamber, known as the hemicycle, as the convention opened with speeches by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr José Maria Aznar, the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, and the President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox.
Mr Cox described the convention as a call to service for today's generation of Europeans.
"Fifty years ago a generation of European leaders, after a devastating war that divided our continent, saw all too clearly what was, but they were prepared to dream of what could be.
"They had the courage of their European convictions. They opened for Europe a pathway to reconciliation and progress which none had walked before. We are the beneficiaries of that legacy and of their foresight," he said.
In an address to the convention, Mr MacSharry said he would table a number of proposals to enhance the role of national parliaments in EU decision-making.
And he made clear that, although the Government will not try to block reform, it is reluctant to make radical changes to the present EU rules, known as the acquis.
"My Government believes that, on the whole, the existing institutional balances, including the role of the Commission and the existing acquis have served Europe very well. We want to modernise the union, not to rebuild it from scratch," he said.
Mr John Bruton, who is a member of the convention's agenda-setting presidium, welcomed Mr Giscard's call for a constitution and said the convention was an acknowledgement that the EU had to change the way it made decisions.
"It's a recognition that the purely inter-governmental method of making treaties has reached the end of its useful life, that it is not able to command the level of public support that's necessary for the scale of the endeavour we are engaged in.
"The purpose of the convention is to open up the process of making future treaties in such a way to ensure that the public of Europe and the individual national publics feel that they have been heard but also that they understand what is going on," Mr Bruton said.
Mr Proinsias De Rossa said an EU constitution was the best way to guarantee the rights of citizens. The written Irish Constitution had defended the rights of citizens at every turn.
