Smaller states would lose power under the Nice Treaty, the Green Party leader claimed yesterday.
Mr Trevor Sargent said the main thrust of the treaty involved a shifting of power from the smaller to the larger states. "In any deal there are winners and losers. The larger states have been for years biting their lip, accepting the equality of treatment the smaller states received.
"This time around, through Nice, it's payback time, and the smaller states are being put back in their box. Of course, the smaller countries are not the only victims in this process. Democracy is also a victim."
Mr Sargent was speaking at a Dublin press conference, where members of the party called for a No vote.
The party's Leinster MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, said the EU Council of Ministers was increasingly becoming a ruthless and unaccountable body.
"The kind of late-night dealing in smoke-filled rooms that finalised the Treaty of Nice was the unacceptable face of the EU and is not worthy of a union of 350 million people," Ms Ahern said.
Ms Deirdre de Burca, a party councillor, said the provisions on enhanced co-operation in the treaty represented a push towards a European state, further integration and a weakening of Irish democracy.
Meanwhile, the party chairman, Mr John Gormley, said the party had sent a solicitor's letter to RTÉ because of its "biased" coverage of the referendum campaign.
He added that, despite a meeting with the head of RTÉ's steering committee on coverage of the Nice referendum, Mr Peter Feeney, the "one-sided" presentation in favour of the Yes side had continued.
"It is ironic that RTÉ has decided to kowtow to this Government, whose record on public service broadcasting has been quite appalling. The recent revelations relating to Ray Burke's treatment of RTÉ make the station's actions all the more puzzling," Mr Gormley said.
Mr Feeney told The Irish Times that Mr Gormley's remarks represented an unwarranted attack on RTÉ journalists.
"We have an obligation to be impartial and we intend to be impartial," he said.
