The debate on Ireland's attitude to the European Union should not be one of "Boston or Berlin", Tánaiste Michael McDowell has said.
In a clear reference to a keynote speech given by his predecessor Mary Harney six years ago, when she suggested Ireland was spiritually "closer to Boston than Berlin", Mr McDowell said he did not believe "that the America model is one we should choose".
In a speech yesterday to the Forum on Europe, the Tánaiste said: "To give Ireland the choice of opting to follow either Boston or Berlin is a useful debating point. But it doesn't reflect the choices open to Ireland which allow us a greater freedom to pick and choose our future. . ."
Mr McDowell warned however about rising anti-Americanism in Europe, and said the Atlantic "should not be allowed to become a gulf for peoples to turn their backs on one another".
"My party opposes those who would aim to make Europe stronger so that it can have louder and more dangerous arguments with America."
Mr McDowell again outlined his party's opposition to a federalist Europe, and claimed it had the potential to create a new "imperium".
"We are implacably opposed to the conversion of the European Union into a super-state in which all the member states would be subjugated to a centralised, overly federalist and unaccountable apparatus of power," he said.
He also highlighted his party's opposition to tax harmonisation, which he said "would be more damaging than helpful in the process of economic development of the European Union".
"Far from being a worthy ambition, I believe it is a very serious threat to the capacity of the union to remain competitive within the world economy."
During his speech, Mr McDowell also targeted the European social model which he described as "outdated and in retreat" and which neither wealthy nor poorer European states could afford any more.
Mr McDowell said he was in favour of enhanced co-operation on criminal and justice matters between European states, including a common approach towards immigration, asylum seekers and international terrorism.
However, he rejected the idea of the creation of a federal criminal justice system.