The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, said yesterday he believed leaders of member-states would be willing to deliver a declaration on Irish neutrality in a new Nice referendum.
Mr Cox also said that in the last referendum there was an "arrogant presumption" that people would vote in favour as they had before.
Speaking on RTÉ radio's News at One, he said he thought there were a number of things in evidence from the first Nice referendum: "One is that the Yes side, I include myself in this in personal terms, made an arrogant presumption, I don't believe the persons individually are arrogant, but the arrogant presumption that if we voted yes four times they surely would vote yes a fifth time in a referendum. Arrogance is out," he said.
Asked about a proposed declaration in recognition of Irish neutrality by other member-states, Mr Cox said: "I believe there's a strong goodwill to deliver that."
He said that at the Barcelona summit, he did not speak about Nice. However, he had a personal meeting with the President of France, Mr Jacques Chirac, who raised the topic with him.
Mr Cox said it was clear to him that Mr Chirac understood, and he was typical of the heads of government, that there was in Ireland an emotional resonance which needed to be recognised.
Whoever the Taoiseach was in June at the Seville summit, and if the new government wanted the declaration then there would be a willing group of people there.
"I don't believe the Treaty of Nice will cause any Irish government now or in the future to have to commit Irish troops against its will to anything. Nonetheless, treaty language is arcane, it relates to earlier treaties also and people can be easily confused because of the complexity," he said.
He thought that they would get something in terms of a plain political statement, a solemn declaration that said nobody would ask anybody to do what they did not want to do.
Asked what would happen if people voted no again, he said he would ask people to reflect if it was in their interests and in the country's interests to vote no.