The Government expects to have the responsibility of chairing the talks that agree a new EU constitutional treaty during Ireland's presidency of the Union next year, according to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen.
Speaking yesterday to the National Forum on Europe, Mr Cowen said he expected the talks at the Union's Inter-Governmental Conference to be concluded during Ireland's Presidency in the first half of 2004.
He said he expected the treaty to take on the shape and much of the detail of the recent report of the Convention on the Future of Europe. However Ireland, like many other states, had a number of issues it wanted re-examined at the IGC.
These included some in the "foreign policy and defence area, and in relation to the voting procedure in the criminal law area". The Government would also be working to ensure that the principle that decisions on taxation could only be taken by unanimity would remain intact.
He expressed disappointment that the convention process had not become more widely known. "Although the convention has been very easy to follow for those with a particular interest in the Union, polls suggest that many of the people of Europe appear not to have heard of it - let alone to know what it has been doing." It was vitally important for Ireland and its EU partners to continue the effort to have the European issues debated in public.
The EU "is both less than a state and more than an international organisation", he said. While Ireland had a number of specific areas of concern where it was determined to protect legitimate national concerns, "we also have an overall interest in a dynamic and effective Union.
"As I have said before, there is no conflict between Ireland's interests and the wider European interest: on the contrary, it is within Europe that we have grown and developed, and it is within Europe that we will continue to progress."
The introduction in the convention report of the concept of non-voting EU commissioners ensured that every member-state would have a presence in the Commission at all times. This had been a key Irish objective.
He also said the Union should now be ready to share the responsibility for global security and well-being, and this had been the Government's approach when discussing EU external action at the convention.