The President, Mrs McAleese, has warned that failure to explain the European Union more clearly to its citizens could lead to distrust, cynicism and contempt for the European institutions, writes Denis Staunton in Brussels
Speaking in Brussels at the end of a three-day visit, Mrs McAleese said the European public was hungry to know about the EU and entitled to know about it.
"I think the dangers are the kind of things we saw in Ireland during the time of the arguments over the pros and cons of the Nice referendum - people not very sure of the way forward, people very bewildered."
Mrs McAleese said that if the citizen's eagerness to understand the Union was not satisfied, "pockets of bewilderment" could damage the EU's standing.
"They lead to distrust. They lead to cynicism. They may even lead to contempt. They lead to ignorance, too, because when people do not fully understand what is going on or what is being done on their behalf, they may not feel they have a vested interest in it," she said.
Mrs McAleese met the Belgian King, Albert II, and had lunch with the president of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi. She said Mr Prodi shared her concern that citizens were in danger of forgetting that the EU was not only about economic prosperity, but about peace and stability. "If you were to judge the 20th century by the first half, it was an outright disaster and we were a shameful continent, an absolutely shameful continent. What redeems that continent in the 20th century is the European Union, the fact that out of this extraordinary wasteland of death and hatred and contempt and conflict, somebody managed to create the miracle of peace."
She said her visit had made clear to her that the Irish officials preparing for next year's EU presidency were equal to the challenge. "This is genuinely one of the most historic periods in the history of Europe, never mind the European Union, and we are privileged that we are going to be part of that."