EU:The president of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, has warned against a full suspension of Turkey's negotiations to join the EU.
He has also reminded Ireland of its legal obligation to ratify the EU constitution, although he acknowledges the current treaty will have to be amended before it is accepted by EU states.
In an interview with The Irish Timesto coincide with his arrival in Ireland today on an official visit, Mr Borrell says a complete suspension of the accession talks with Turkey should not happen.
"An abrupt and traumatic end to the talks would be very negative and undermine the relationship between Europe and the Islamic world," says Mr Borrell, a Spanish socialist MEP who was elected president of the parliament to succeed Irish MEP Pat Cox in 2004.
Turkey's talks to join the union are in trouble just a year after they started over its failure to open its ports to Cypriot vessels. EU leaders are scheduled to decide next month whether to punish Turkey by suspending its accession talks completely, or only suspending talks on a few negotiating chapters on trade. Most analysts say a full suspension could mean they are never restarted.
Mr Borrell says Ankara needs to comply with the obligations that it has made regarding Cypriot ports, but he also stresses that the EU had a duty to fulfil its obligations to the Turkish Cypriot community.
Mr Borrell, who is due to attend the national forum on Europe and to meet Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, is a strong advocate of the need for reform of the EU institutions.
However, he now acknowledges that the current text of the EU constitutional treaty, which was negotiated under Ireland's six-month EU presidency in 2004, is dead. "The present treaty will not be ratified by all member states," he says, adding that its core should be saved.
Yet despite his acknowledgement that the current treaty will never be implemented, Mr Borrell says states such as Ireland should still move ahead and ratify the treaty by referendum.
"All member states signed up to the treaty and therefore they are legally obliged to ratify the treaty.
"I know they will not go along with that and I understand the political reasons that they won't, but it would be significant to know the positions on the treaty from the different countries."
Mr Borrell, who has just returned from Africa, is critical about a lack of solidarity shown by EU states in dealing with immigration. His native country Spain is bearing the brunt of a tide of African immigrants crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy boats to try to find a new life in Europe.
More than 20,000 have made the journey this year, some drowning en route and others arriving at the Canary Islands and the coast in a poor state of health.
However, EU states remain reluctant to provide financial help or to remove the national veto over immigration and justice decisions.
"There are concerns about money but immigration is a European problem . . . Africans don't want to remain in Malta or Spain, they use it as a staging post or springboard towards the rest of Europe." He adds it is Ireland's responsibility as well as Spain's.
"What would have happened in Ireland when the Famine occurred in 1848 if they had not been able to migrate to the US?"
Mr Borrell, who will step down as president in January under a deal agreed between the two biggest political groups in the parliament, shrugs off criticism that he has been unable to implement reform or persuade member states to move the parliament to a single seat.
Having two seats in Strasbourg and Brussels costs taxpayers €200 million a year, yet despite collecting a million signatures, campaigners have been frustrated in their attempts to move the seat. "This is a decision for states, not the parliament," say Mr Borrell, who nevertheless agrees a single seat would be more efficient.