The Fine Gael and Labour leaders held separate talks in Laeken last night with EU colleagues on how the process of reforming the EU should be conducted.
Mr Michael Noonan met leaders of parties from the 15 member-states and the applicant states affiliated to the European People's Party.
Meanwhile, Mr Ruair∅ Quinn held talks with leaders attached to the Party of European Socialists to agree the priorities each group was seeking for the reform process, which The Laeken Summit will discuss today and tomorrow.
Mr Noonan urged the members of his group, a number of who will be attending the summit as heads of state or government, to take strong joint action to eliminate the trafficking of people in the wake of the deaths of eight people found in the container truck in Wexford last weekend.
"The international nature of this trade means that it can only be tackled effectively on a transnational basis," he said.
Measures to tackle such illegal trafficking are among the issues expected to be put on the agenda for a convention to consider the future of Europe to be agreed at the summit.
The EU heads of state and government will also seek to agree a series of questions which the convention should consider and report on, in advance of an inter-governmental conference which is expected to run through Ireland's next EU presidency in the first half of 2004.
Mr Noonan pressed his party's view that the rejection of the Nice Treaty in Ireland showed that:
"We need to address the perceived remoteness of the European Union from its citizens and the concerns of many regarding Ireland's military neutrality".
Mr Quinn said last night that success would be measured by whether the Union succeeded in increasing public support for Europe rather than whether it reformed the treaties.
His group had identified six questions which should be considered by the convention, he said.
These were whether the aim of making Europe safe from terrorism and trafficking in people had been achieved; whether an effective rapid-reaction force had been put in place; whether enough progress had been made towards full employment and the fuller participation of women in the workforce; whether most candidate countries had been admitted to the EU; whether all member-states had ratified the Kyoto Protocol and met the targets set at Kyoto; and whether a successful round of world trade talks had opened up the world market to developing countries.