A group describing itself as a 'broad-based' coalition of people supporting social justice, democracy and peace in Europe has begun a campaign for a vote against the forthcoming referendum on the EU constitution.
Speaking at a media event in Dublin, representatives of the group, which includes the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, the Socialist Workers Party and Sinn Féin, said they wanted to launch the campaign early in order to ensure the proper dissemination of information about the referendum.
The Government has not yet set a date for the ballot, but it is expected to be held later this year.
The group also incorporates the People's Movement, described as a left-wing grouping which emerged during the campaign on the Nice Treaty.
Former MEP Patricia McKenna said that in the interests of a better Europe which puts the rights of people and the environment first, it was "vital" that the proposed constitution is rejected.
Ms McKenna said Europe was becoming "more and more undemocratic instead of more democratic and transparent" and that the constitution would copper-fasten what she called the "democratic deficit".
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein MEP
Lecturer in women's studies Ailbhe Smyth said she was "extremely concerned" about what the proposed constitution would lead to.
She expressed particular concern about provisions which she said would allow the "creeping privatisation" of public services such as health and education. Equal access to such services was a basic right, she said.
Ms Smyth said approving the constitution would hand over accountability and control to unelected officials at the European Commission in Brussels.
Mr Andy Storey, lecturer in development studies at UCD, said the constitution would "in significant ways", such as the establishment of the European Defence Agency, advance the militarisation of the European Union.
The constitution also extended the range of tasks the EU's "military wing" may undertake outside the boundaries of the union, Mr Storey said.
Artist Robert Ballagh said the whole debate on the issue was couched in "impenetrable dialogue".
It was important, he said, that the debate take place in a language that was accessible for the "broad mass of the people".
Ordinary people were "not able to take" the "labyrinthine" arguments involved, he added.
"It's not reasonable to expect ordinary people to take on a document that's the size of a telephone directory."
Mr Ballagh said he had been philosophically opposed to the European project, but in many ways he had felt it was "a fairly benign project".
However, the constitution "suggests we are moving into the malignant phase of European development", he said.
The Sinn Fein MEP Mary Lou McDonald also called for rejection of the constitution in a statement.
She said the constitution, which the French public will vote on in May and which has already been approved in Spain, had been found wanting on many counts.
She said: "It [the constitution] deepens the democratic deficit, further concentrating power in the hands of the few at the expense of national parliaments and ordinary people."