The lack of a single EU approach to the war in Iraq highlights the need for discursive bodies such as the National Forum on Europe, it's been claimed.
Launching the report on the third phase of the Forum's work at Dublin Castle, the body's Chairman, Senator Maurice Hayes stated: "The consequences of the lack of a common EU approach to the Iraq crisis have underlined the relevance and urgency of the debate underway in the Convention on the Future of Europe - a debate which the Forum has been conducting here at home."
The work of the National Forum on Europe has undertaken the most extensive public debate of European issues of any organisation within the EU member states, he added.
Senator Hayes also suggested that the increased turn-out in last October's vote on the Nice Treaty was partly due to the work of Forum's work in facilitating "a neutral space for debate" of European issues.
A quarter of the electorate found the forum to be a useful source of information in the run-up to October's vote, he claimed.
The main item on the Forum's agenda at present is the ongoing debate of the Convention on the Future of Europe, designed to produce a new constitutional treaty for the EU. However, the ongoing war in Iraq may serve to stall debate in this regard, Senator Hayes warned.
"In the current international climate it is difficult to predict what the pace of development at the Convention will be," he said.
The National Forum on Europe was established in October 2001, in the wake of the defeat of the first Nice Referendum. It aims to facilitate a broad discussion of issues relevant to Ireland's membership of an enlarging EU, and to consider the range of topics arising in the context of the debate on the Future of Europe.
The Forum has 33 full members, with representation from all Dail parties. The Forum holds regular nationwide public meetings, at which members of the public can air their views on issues concerning the EU and its enlargement.