The raison d'être of the European Union has been to moderate relations of power on this continent (which have historically plunged it into destructive wars) by pooling sovereignty and sharing decision-making between its large and small member-states.
The summit meeting between the leaders of Germany, France and Britain in Berlin this week seemed at first glance to herald a breach of this fundamental principle as the EU enlarges to 25 members this year. To confirm it, one would need to show the summit agreed on ways to determine the EU's political future.
It did not do so. Nevertheless such fears, expressed by smaller and larger states not represented at Berlin, underline the pressing need to conclude negotiations on the constitutional treaty for the Union, which will help prevent the emergence of such a two-tier system. The summit helpfully pledged itself to complete this task in co-operation with Ireland's EU presidency.
Gerhard Schröder, Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair were at pains to deny they intend to set up such a caucus. They cannot deliver on the ambitious economic agenda they discussed without allies. So they need to show their co-operation is intended to facilitate agreement and effective action within the wider EU and not just to pursue their own interests. Such concertation is not at all unprecedented. As the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has pointed out, the Baltic, Mediterranean and Benelux countries meet regularly, while for years the Franco-German axis has provided a dynamic motor-force for closer integration. There is bound to be an increase in such regional or functional groupings when the 10 new states join. The crucial question is how they are orchestrated within the larger whole.
The Berlin summit has called for a much more radical effort to reform the European economy, create jobs, stimulate growth and improve its global competitiveness. Without such an initiative there is no prospect of delivering on the agenda established in Lisbon four years ago to make the EU the dynamic section of the world economy. Calls for boosting innovation, research, development and competition coincide with this central priority of the Government's EU presidency agenda.
The coincidence of purpose is partly why Mr Ahern has tolerated the Berlin meeting, so long as its consensus is orchestrated with the rest of the member-states. If it is, such micro-negotiations serve a useful purpose.
But the other EU members must beware of any assumption that because Germany, France and Britain combine half the population and GDP of the EU they are entitled to a determining voice. They are not. The European Union is a union of nations and states as well as peoples. Were it not so the smaller members would never have agreed to share sovereignty by accepting majority voting. Getting the constitutional treaty right on that crucial issue may be an achievable task of Ireland's EU presidency.