European Parliament President Pat Cox said today Ireland was a role model for countries joining the European Union in 2004 and it should champion diversity in the interests of Europe's smaller nations.
Mr Cox said Ireland's economic success story was one many joining countries from eastern Europe wished to copy.
"We can offer leadership because we've a valid experience and the valid experience is one many wish to emulate," Mr Cox told Reuters in an interview.
He said Ireland's standing was little dented by its referendum rejection of the Nice Treaty that cleared the way for EU expansion.
Mr Cox said the unexpected Irish "no" vote on the Nice Treaty in 2001 showed how important it was that the "European project stays in touch with democratic foundations". "I think it represented a wake-up call," he said.
Mr Cox also said the EU needed to do more to stamp its imprint on global affairs and that the US lead in the war on terror and in clamping down on alleged Iraqi weapons programmes showed up a lack of cohesion in Europe.
"We've a lot of grey spaces and this is what we have to deal with," he said. "For example, I find it unacceptable that we deal with issues like asylum, immigration, the fight against terrorism and cross-border criminality in what, in 'euro-speak', is what's called the 'third pillar'," - an area over which neither the Union nor member states has full jurisdiction.