Ireland should be embracing the challenge of the Convention on the Future of Europe "with greater vigour", according to the Institute of European Affairs, a Dublin-based think-tank which deals with issues related to Irish membership of the European Union.
The institute has published an analysis of the draft constitution currently under discussion at the convention. The report, entitled A Constitutional Treaty for Europe: Implications for Ireland, was presented yesterday to the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs by a delegation from the institute led by the former Taoiseach, Dr Garret FitzGerald.
A total of 1,000 amendments to the draft constitution have been tabled and the final, agreed version is due for completion in June. It will then go forward to an intergovernmental conference of the member-states, which will have the final say on its contents.
The report states there is still "residual resentment" in the rest of the EU over Ireland's initial rejection of the Nice Treaty. Along with the forthcoming EU enlargement, this had contributed to raising questions as to whether the principle of unanimity should be applied to future treaty changes.
The report notes that "a preliminary battle" is under way in the convention over the separation of defence from foreign and security policy. The report adds: "Ireland's preference is for defence to remain a component of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (where the emphasis is on crisis management) rather than a separate defence section (which could imply a more defence-oriented foreign and security policy)." The institute said proposals for greater co-ordination in criminal law matters were, generally speaking, "modest and carefully considered" and that the proposals called for "due regard to be paid to the different legal traditions of member-states".
Several members of the Oireachtas committee raised the issue of how the electorate was going to be persuaded to vote for the new treaty in a referendum. The Labour TD, Mr Ruairí Quinn, said that "selling this thing" would not be easy, even if it was only a rationalisation of existing documents. This would be the case "for a whole host of domestic reasons".
The Progressive Democrat TD, Ms Mae Sexton, asked: "Where is the citizen going to be left in all of this?" Commenting on the fast pace of events at the convention, as she saw it, Ms Sexton continued: "I am very concerned that the citizen is going to be left behind." The committee chairman, Mr Gay Mitchell TD (Fine Gael), said Ireland should be arguing for a common defence as part of the new treaty. He believed Ireland was the "most vulnerable" state in the EU because it was not part of any mutual defence arrangement.