Failure to ratify the Nice Treaty would cause a huge crisis, according to Ms Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, Minister of State at the Belgian department of foreign affairs.
Speaking at the Institute of European Affairs in Dublin, she said if the Republic did not ratify the treaty the question of whether it should stay in the European Union should be addressed.
She said she did not know what resolution could be reached within the Nice Treaty if the Republic continued to oppose it. Re-examining the treaty could not assuage Irish fears over neutrality or losing its voice in Europe, she said.
"It might be to find another question, of whether you want to stay or get out," she said. "Ultimately you might find out that this is what it is about, and that of course, is way beyond the scope of this treaty."
The Belgian presidency of the EU begins on July 1st and she said it would try to establish why the Republic rejected the treaty and would urge a clarification and simplification of it for European citizens. Ireland's rejection was no reason to panic as there remained 18 to 24 months before the treaty had to be ratified, but it did complicate the matter. "Ratification by every member-state is essential. Without ratification by the 15 there is no treaty," she added.
Rejection of the treaty would send the wrong message to applicant countries that the member-states no longer supported political and cultural union. She said the advocates of the Yes campaign failed to show how important the treaty was and that disinformation about it needed to be corrected.
She said Ireland, along with Britain and the Scandinavian countries, saw the EU as a distinct sovereignty with a separate set of rules rather than viewing it as a institutional entity they were part of.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, the President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, said: " We are poised to fulfill a dream and a duty: nothing less than the unification of our continent in peace and democracy under the rule of law."
Of the Irish vote he said: "Sometimes, it takes adversity to force us to acknowledge the need for change. I hope and believe that Nice will ultimately be approved. But equally I am hopeful that we can turn this unexpected setback to our advantage by launching a new debate on how to proceed with the European project."
In the Dail the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, yesterday rejected Opposition charges that he had contradicted Government policy with his "healthy development" remarks after the rejection of the Nice Treaty.