The SDLP is fully supportive of a Yes vote in the forthcoming Nice Treaty referendum, according to the Northern Assembly's Finance Minister, Mr Sean Farren.
Speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal today the SDLP minister criticised those parties campaigning against the Treaty.
"It is somewhat ironic that the two parties with most in common on this issue are Sinn Fein and the DUP," he said. "By pursuing an isolationist agenda Sinn Fein are displaying their version of ‘ourselves alone’".
Both parts of Ireland had benefited from working in partnership with the European Union, according to Mr Farren. "The role of the European Union in Ireland has been entirely positive".
"The European programmes are linking communities North and South, contributing to the development of vital aspects of our infrastructure as well as education and training", he continued.
In relation to Northern Ireland he said that progress being made under the Belfast Agreement is being threatened by paramilitaries and by internal wrangling within the UUP.
He said that Northern Ireland’s institutions were key to addressing the serious difficulties that still exist. He urged Mr David Trimble and other Ulster Unionists who believe current institutions could be easily replaced to "think again".
He warned that if the institutions set up under the Belfast Agreement were to fall, the "vacuum" created would exacerbate "cross-community tensions" and intensify "paramilitary violence".
If this were to happen "Anti-Agreement parties would have been rewarded by supposedly pro-Agreement parties".