The European Union's reform treaty is a bad deal for smaller states who will see their influence eroded in the bloc's main decision making body, Danish Eurosceptic campaigner Jens-Peter Bonde said today.
Mr Bonde, who recently retired after 29 years as a member of the European parliament and was involved in negotiations over the treaty, said he would vote No if his country held a referendum.
He said larger countries had already been steadily increasing their weight on the decision-making European Council.
"It (the treaty) is not an adjustment, it is a radical change where the small member states give in and the big member states win power in the Council," he said in Dublin at the launch of his book on the treaty.
Opponents of the treaty say smaller states will see their share of votes shrink on the Council, which represents member states, as it is weighted according to population size. They also say that countries will lose permanent representation on the European Commission executive.
Mr Bonde, who was the architect behind the Danish No vote in 1992 over the Maastricht treaty, said he was not in Ireland to encourage people to reject the bloc's latest accord, but added he was critical of the document.
"It is bad for voters in all member states," he said. "It moves decisions from the parliaments and the voters to the civil servants and ministers meeting behind closed doors in Brussels."
But Fianna Fail TD Michael McGrath said: "This treaty was negotiated by small countries and is deeply imbued with respect for their rights".
Mr Cowen said this week the treaty gave smaller countries substantial influence, with the support of at least nine of them required before a proposal could pass into law. In some cases a single country, whether Germany or Malta, will have a veto.