Ireland's European Commissioner, Mr David Byrne, has raised the possibility of a constitution for Europe as the European Union increases in size.
Welcoming the recently invigorated debate, Mr Byrne said there are various issues that have to be addressed as we proceed towards enlargement.
"Should we have a readily comprehensible constitution for Europe? What kind of charter of fundamental rights should there be and what would its legal consequences be? What kind of closer co-operation arrangement should be envisaged, with what kinds of checks and balances?" the Commissioner, who was in Dublin, asked.
Mr Byrne warned that without major reform, as the number of member-states doubles in the years ahead, enlargement would "drown our capacity and capability to manage integration in any credible way".
He said we must have debate on the future of the Union and people must "be involved and feel involved".
Meanwhile, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms Sile de Valera, whose speech in Boston last week reopened the European debate, said yesterday that she did not want to see the creation of a "United States of Europe" where diversities of member countries would be lost.
At the launch of a report on a local development programme in Ennis, Co Clare, Ms de Valera said she was very pleased at the debate initiated by her speech at Boston College, Massachusetts. She said this was "the second if not the third" attempt she made to spark such a debate.
Mr Byrne, at the launch of a transatlantic cable upgrade in Clonshaugh, Co Dublin, said the challenges facing the Union prompted important questions such as what were the main functions and role of the EU, how the EU could be given the capability to manage effectively, and how enlargement would affect Europe.
He said the three essential issues for reform were the size of the Commission, the extension of qualified majority voting and the weighting of votes in the Council. Mr Byrne said he hoped agreement could be reached on these important issues at the European Council in Nice in December.
Mr Byrne said he believed it was in the interest of the smaller member-states to ensure that there was a strong Commission.
All concerned must work together to ensure the future role of the Commission was not undermined, he said. Since the beginning of the year the Commission had been active in promoting public debate between political leaders and the people of Europe on the future direction of the European Union.
In her speech yesterday, Ms de Valera said she did not believe the debate was coming too late. There were ongoing discussions on the role of the Republic and smaller states within the EU.
Full text of Mr Byrne's speech and that of Ms de Valera in Boston last week are available on the Irish Times website: www.ireland.com/newspaper/special