The decision of the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to hold a referendum on the European Union constitution could encourage other member-states to do the same, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has acknowledged. From Mark Hennessy in Prague
Speaking in Prague yesterday, during a one-day visit to the city for a series of meetings with leading Czech politicians, Mr Ahern said: "I think it may influence others."
However, he quickly qualified his remarks, noting that referendum decisions would be taken by other member-states in line with their "political, legal and constitutional rules".
Mr Blair's decision would not make it more difficult to persuade him to accept the proposed constitution at the June EU summit, Mr Ahern said.
"I don't think it changes anything. We are already very familiar with the British 'red lines'. The fact that they will have a referendum will not cause more red lines," he commented.
The Taoiseach, who is currently President of the European Council, had talks with the Czech Prime Minister, Mr Vladimir Spidla, shortly before Czech MPs voted on a proposal to sharply increase VAT before the country joins the EU on May 1st.
Later, he met Mr Petr Pithart, the President of the Czech Senate, before delivering a keynote address to leading Czech political and academic figures.
The Taoiseach's visit coincided with the decision of the President of the Czech Republic, Mr Vaclav Klaus, to write an article in a leading Czech newspaper warning that the May 1st enlargement would mark the end of the country's sovereignty.
Rejecting that charge, Mr Ahern, although not mentioning Mr Klaus by name, commented: "In an age of globalised trade and media, sharing sovereignty in agreed areas does not represent a loss. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It represents a real and tangible gain for states by giving them an influence for which they otherwise could not hope."
Calling on the EU to become more competitive, Mr Ahern said: "I do not fear that Irish jobs will go to the Czech Republic or that Czech jobs will come to Ireland.
"What we in Europe have to worry about is that we do not lose jobs to India, China, Latin America and the United States. That is the way that the world is going."
In a decade's time, the forces to be reckoned with would be the 300/400 million people forming the middle and upper classes in China and a similar number in India. That was why the EU had to cease being insular, he said, although he did admit to being "hung up" on the EU meeting its 2010 target to become the most successful knowledge economy in the world.
The EU's enlargement into Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean had been spoken about for so long that we ran the risk of taking its significance for granted. "This is a truly historic development. It is a development which we should celebrate and enjoy," Mr Ahern told his large audience.
Acknowledging that the EU's institutions were complex and hard to understand, the Taoiseach noted that opponents of the Union who adopted extreme positions had found it easy to "misrepresent" them.
"Moderates tend to believe that their understanding is self-evident. However, there is a real danger in this approach. It can leave the field wide open to those with fierce undemocratic points of view or to those who want to destroy the Union. Moderates must not allow the truth to become distorted," he continued.
Hinting to his audience that EU membership brought challenges with it, Mr Ahern said that membership had not been a "guarantee of success" for Ireland. "It was an opportunity," he declared.
Questioned later about the ongoing negotiations on the constitution, the Taoiseach said he believed that the return of the Socialists to power in Spain had changed the dynamic.
In his newspaper article, President Klaus, a long-term Eurosceptic, wrote: "In a few days, our state will cease to exist as an independent and sovereign entity. Let us do all we can to avoid losing ourselves in the EU, so that the age-old work of our forebears does not get diluted."
The EU's enlargement had been "too hasty" and had not "sufficiently taken into account economic status, geographic situation and national particularities", wrote Mr Klaus, who is on an official visit to China.