EU: The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, has praised the work of the Convention on the Future of Europe but said its draft constitution represents no more than a basis for negotiations between governments in an Inter-governmental Conference (IGC).
He said the Government was unhappy about some of the constitution's articles on justice and home affairs and was concerned that no attempt should be made to abolish national vetoes on tax issues.
"There is a great measure of consensus and agreement on many issues. It's not a question of unravelling it and starting ab initio as if it didn't exist. Nor is it a question of it having to be rubber-stamped by an IGC. It's a question now of a political negotiation taking place in the context of what has been good quality work that will provide a good basis for those negotiations," he said.
EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Luxembourg failed to agree on a form of words to describe the status of the draft constitution in advance of the IGC.
Germany wanted to describe the draft as "a good basis for a treaty" and to limit the IGC to two or three months. But other countries insisted that the draft constitution was no more than a starting-point.
Mr Cowen said the Government was prepared to accept a change in the way a qualified majority is calculated rather than unravel the convention's deal on reforming EU institutions.
Earlier yesterday, EU Ministers rejected a British proposal to establish holding centres outside the EU for refugees seeking asylum in the EU.
Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, agreed to drop the proposal when other Ministers echoed criticism of the plan voiced earlier by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Mr Straw said Britain would continue to push for the EU to help poor countries create so-called "protection zones" for refugees in regions of conflict.
"There are two things here: one was transit camps which would be within a wider Europe. The second is what's called zones of protection, which were in the area from which some of the asylum-seekers originate, for example in the Horn of Africa. The first is not being actively considered within the EU at the moment, but the second is."
Meanwhile in Dublin yesterday, former Taoiseach Mr John Bruton cautioned against any attempt to "unpick" elements of the draft EU constitution agreed by the Convention on Europe.
On suggestions that smaller EU states might seek to strengthen their status during the Inter-Governmental Conference negotiation on the treaty based on the convention document, Mr Bruton said that anyone seeking to amend the draft would "want to have their head examined".
Mr Bruton said: "I think it would be very imprudent to start unpicking the deal. Ireland is the last country in the whole of Europe that should contemplate that. We have done very well."
A member of the convention's praesidium, Mr Bruton was speaking yesterday evening after he addressed a Labour Party conference on Europe. Mr Bruton said that nothing could be read into his appearance at the Labour event, adding that he had addressed a Fianna Fáil gathering six weeks ago.
Ireland's national interest, he said, was the same as the EU's interests.
"A stronger EU is good for Ireland. A stronger EU, almost by definition, is good for smaller states within that union, because the very existence of the union acts as a restraint on the unbridled pursuit of self-interest by larger states," he said.
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, told the conference that those in favour of a new constitution should campaign in a referendum on the basis of the clearest possible understanding of the text.
"We know from experience in Ireland that this is where the politics of fear come into play. In the case of several referenda held here in the past, negative and highly charged emotional slogans proved sufficiently powerful to outweigh or almost outweigh reasonable and rational arguments."