Fine Gael joins National Forum on Europe

Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny took his party into the Forum on Europe today for the first time. Until now Fine Gael had refused to take its seat at the Forum.

After greeting the forum's Chairman, Senator Maurice Hayes, Mr Kenny said his party was very pleased to be there.

"It is time we were here. A second referendum on Nice is almost upon us, the outcome of which will impact powerfully on all the peoples of the European Union, and to an even greater degree, on all those who are waiting to join," he said.

"In our new-found affluence it's easy to be indifferent to a distant geographic entity. It's not so easy, though, to be indifferent to hardships and frustrations of families, and of individual men and women, in the cities and on the farms of Poland, or the Czech Republic or Hungary," he said.

Quoting General de Gaulle, who once said that politics was too serious a matter to be left to politicians, Mr Kenny said that he spoke this morning both as a politician and as a citizen.

Advocating a Yes vote in the re-run later this year of the Nice Treaty referendum, the Fine Gael leader said he was obliged to raise concerns on behalf of two groups: those who voted No to Nice and the two-thirds of the electorate who did not vote at all in the referendum.

"I'm here today, to point out to the Government its gross and abject failure to communicate to the people of Ireland the essence... the quintessence...of Nice.

"I'm here to hold the Government responsible for the failure of a Treaty that was essentially, behind all the rhetoric, about including people, and making their lives better. And, about our responsibility in that process," he said.

Today's sitting was also addressed by Mr Milan Kucan, President of the Republic of Slovenia, one of the countries seeking accession to the EU.

Mr John Bruton, Mr Ray MacSharry and Mr Proinsias de Rossa, Irish representatives at the Convention on the Future of Europe, are due to report on issues that have emerged at the convention, which was set up by EU leaders last December to debate the type of Europe its citizens want.