The Government will insist on retaining a commissioner at the EU summit in Nice next month, the Taoiseach said yesterday in a wide-ranging address on Ireland's role in the future of the Union. However, if the size of the European Commission was to be satisfactorily resolved, it should be possible, Mr Ahern said, to agree on a reasonable formula for the reweighting of votes in the Council of Ministers.
Addressing the European Movement, Ireland, he said: "For our part we see a great merit in a dual majority approach, where a proposal would have to be supported both by a weighted majority of votes and by states representing, say, approximately 60 per cent of the Union's population." He recognised that things could become more unwieldy as more states joined but this could be prevented by giving the president, as head of the Commission, greater powers. However, "we could not favour the creation of a Treaty-based hierarchy of commissioners", Mr Ahern said.
While commissioners did not serve national interests, it was vital, if the Commission was to play its role at the heart of the institutions, that its members had first-hand knowledge of each member-state.
"In our view, it is essential that we agree at Nice that each member-state retains the right to nom nate a commissioner. At this stage of the Union's development, and given also the expectations of the candidate countries, I see no other way forward."
Some of the larger EU partners have said there should be a ceiling on the number of commissioners and they would be prepared to see a rotation system.
Mr Ahern said an enlarged EU would reduce the direct influence of each individual member-state. However, enlargement was in Europe's interest. "Not to support it wholeheartedly would be hypocritical, short-sighted and ungenerous," he said.
"However, in taking forward necessary changes, it is important that the existing balances not be radically altered."
On taxation, he said it was a core function of national government and there was a danger a "seemingly innocuous precedent could be seized on and used as a bridgehead for wider change".
On common defence and security policy, Mr Ahern said the EU should play a role in the world commensurate with our economic weight. The State's EU and UN roles would be complementary and mutually reinforcing. "Any decision on whether to take part in a particular initiative will be made on a case-by-case basis and only where there is a UN mandate. So there is already a degree of flexibility in this area."
Mr Ahern believed a reasonable deal would be done, though the detail of the final agreement would not emerge until the very end. "As I have made clear, it will only be then that we can decide, on the basis of precise legal advice, whether or not a referendum will be necessary in this jurisdiction."
Online - The Irish Times www.ireland.com
The full text of the address by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to the European Movement at Dublin Castle is available at The Irish Times website at www.ireland.com