Two auspicious events in European history occurred yesterday: the opening of the Convention on the Future of Europe and the end of the 12 national currencies which have been merged into the euro.
That they are directly linked was well illustrated in last week's blunt rejection by the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, of a proposal by the German Chancellor, Mr Schröder, to Europeanise "everything to do with economic and financial policy". That the convention has great potential to unite Europe's leaders and peoples as well as to divide them is amply expressed in its ambitious overall mandate: "How to bring citizens, and primarily the young, closer to the European design and the European institutions, how to organise politics and the European area in an enlarged Union and how to develop the Union into a stabilising factor and a model in the new, multipolar world".
The Convention departs radically from traditional methods of negotiating EU treaties by involving national parliamentarians and representatives of civil society in an open and open-ended preparatory process. The Convention could recommend a constitutional text for the EU, as was called for yesterday by its president, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing.and by Mr Romano Prodi and Mr Pat Cox. Their hope is that such an innovative process can help overcome the EU's deficits of legitimacy and democracy and reconnect them with ordinary citizens.
Ireland has fielded a strong team for the Convention. Mr Ray MacSharry will represent the Government, with Mr John Bruton TD and Mr Prionsias de Rossa representing the Oireachtas. According to the chairman of the National Forum on Europe, Mr Maurice Hayes, four clusters of issues preoccupy its members in these talks: that any new balance between the EU's institutions ensures adequate influence for smaller states like Ireland, as larger states seek to extend their say; that citizens and national parliaments should be fully engaged to enhance the EU's legitimacy; that essential national interests and concerns (such as taxation and neutrality) be upheld; and that new methods of governing should clarify who is really making the decisions in Europe.
Ireland has much to contribute to the Convention and should not be too defensive because of uncertainty about the Nice Treaty. A radical approach will be needed to ensure the EU can be reformed , while maintaining its value as an arena in which states have pooled sovereignty while enhancing their international influence.