FORUM ON EUROPE: The Government felt more at home in Boston than Berlin, the Fine Gael leader said yesterday as he led his party into the National Forum on Europe. It was the first time the party had attended the forum.
Mr Enda Kenny has reversed Fine Gael's policy of boycotting the forum. "Let me say to you and to everyone present that Fine Gael is very pleased to be here," he said. His party would "campaign vigorously" for the Nice Treaty in a second referendum.
He accused the Government of mismanagement in the last campaign. The people would speak again and the Government had a responsibility to ensure they were fully informed.
He wanted to ask the Taoiseach "a critical question" - whether he would have the "full and absolute support of his Cabinet" in the next referendum.
"I think his response would be interesting."
A second referendum was necessary and desirable: "The Government is lucky to get this second chance." But there was no evidence, so far, that the Government had learned from last year's mistakes. An EU declaration that Nice had no implications for Ireland's military neutrality might go some way towards allaying public fears but this would not be enough.
"When it comes to Europe, the Government has to an extent played games with the people. On occasion it has conveniently blamed Europe for unpopular regulations or decisions, as if Ireland had no say in the matter.
"But I suppose that might not be entirely unexpected given that the Government feels more at home in Boston than it does in Berlin," Mr Kenny said.
The newly-appointed Minister of State on European Affairs, Mr Dick Roche, said it was not a time for "political squabbling" but he noted that, in the second week of his second term, the Taoiseach was giving "110 per cent of his energy" to securing EU acceptance of a declaration on Irish neutrality.
The President of Slovenia, Mr Milan Kucan, said Ireland had made good use of EU membership.
"I should therefore like to believe that at the next referendum your public will agree to the European enlargement process and thus open opportunities also to Slovenia as well as to other candidates for the development that Ireland has already enjoyed."
A divided Europe could not play an influential role in the world: "It is necessary for Europe to be capable of speaking in one single voice with regard to crucial issues of the world and its future."
Slovenia viewed the new Europe as a spiritual and cultural undertaking.
"The Europe of the 21st century is about giving up shortsighted national egotism. It is thus also an ethical project," Mr Kucan said.
The Government representative at the Convention on the Future of Europe, Mr Ray MacSharry, said it was essential to address the sense of "disconnection" from the EU felt by many citizens.
There was a strong case for involving national parliaments in choosing the president of the European Commission, he said.
Ms Deirdre de Burca of the Green Party said it was "profoundly undemocratic" to put Nice to a second vote after it was so decisively rejected last year. The enhanced co-operation provisions in the treaty would split Europe in two.
Mr Dermot Connolly of the Socialist Party said Nice was a flawed treaty which was likely to be rejected in a second referendum in the autumn. "That would be a very healthy development," he said.
Former Taoiseach Mr John Bruton, who is a member of the convention's praesidium, said there were some people in the convention, including "perhaps the most eminent" of them all, who felt the treaty was far too generous to small states and would be quietly rubbing their hands if Ireland said No to Nice again.
In some places - "perhaps not far from the banks of the Seine" - there would be great delight at a second Irish rejection because it would give a chance to the big countries to take more control.
The Labour MEP and Convention on Europe delegate, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, appealed to the media "to accord the convention and this forum the importance they merit in the news and analysis columns and programmes".