Talks in the Convention on the Future of Europe are proceeding too fast and threaten to leave the Irish people behind, the Government has been bluntly told by some of its TDs and MEPs.
The warning came during a lengthy meeting yesterday between the Oireachtas' European Affairs Committee (EAC) and Irish representatives to the Convention, including Minister of State Mr Dick Roche.
"It is going way too fast. We have not yet settled enlargement. Referendums have to be held in the candidate countries. What will they be voting on, the Nice Treaty or a new one?" said Fianna Fáil MEP Mr Niall Andrews.
Progressive Democrat TD Ms Mae Sexton, a member of the EU's Committee of the Regions, said: "We have to slow down. It does worry me to see the pace at which this is moving."
Agreeing, the Minister of State said he wished that every EU member-state should have to hold a referendum on any upcoming treaty. "It would be a salutary lesson for many of them," he said.
Among issues the convention is examining are ways to simplify existing EU treaties; which issues should be left to national governments, and which are better handled by the EU; and whether the EU needs a constitution.
Yesterday, two of Ireland's Convention representatives, former Taoiseach Mr John Bruton and Labour MEP Mr Proinsias De Rossa, insisted the convention's final report would dictate the final treaty.
However, Mr Roche disagreed: "Ultimately, the IGC [the Inter-Governmental Conference] will make the final decisions. The convention will play a very limited role in forming the agenda for the IGC.
"It is wrong to suggest that the convention is where the negotiations are taking place. It is the place where views are being expressed. It is wrong to suggest that the IGC will be a rubber stamp," he said.
The Government has argued strongly, he said, that there should be a gap between the convention's final report and the IGC to allow time for national debates on the issue to take place.
Furthermore, the candidate countries, who are due to join in mid-2004, must be involved in the drafting of the new EU member- states: "Many of them are very similar ideas to our own," he told the EAC.
Implicitly complaining about the Government's performance at the convention, Mr Bruton insisted that "the main work" would be done by the convention.
"The convention is not the rehearsal for the IGC. It is the game."
However, Mr Bruton's suggestion that the next European Commission president should be directly elected by voters in every member-state appeared to gain little support.
Fianna Fáil TD Mr Michael Mulcahy said: "I don't think most would want a directly-elected president. I don't see farmer O'Leary in Kerry voting for Theo Papadopulus. I think it is a ridiculous idea."
The Government wants the Commission president elected by an electoral college, drawn from the European Parliament and national parliaments, rather than leaving the vote to the European Parliament alone.
The chairman of the EAC, Fine Gael TD Mr Gay Mitchell, complained about the committee's lack of resources: "It isn't right. The committee doesn't even have the personnel to get the briefs out in time," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr De Rossa proposed that the Oireachtas should spend a full week early in the new year discussing future EU plans with ministers and EU commissioners. Such a move, he told the committee, would "add enormously to the Irish people's awareness and understanding of European affairs".