Sir, - Like many others, I was delighted with the Irish people's decisive rejection of the Nice Treaty. Fortunately, the Irish electorate were not convinced by the political promises of the main parties that a full public debate would be entered into on the future direction of the European Union after the Nice Treaty had been ratified.
Clearly, if the Nice Treaty had been ratified, no amount of consultation with "civil society" in future years would have allowed for a reversal of the fundamental changes to the European Union which would have been effected by this treaty, including the creation of a two-tier Europe, the putting in place of the foundations of a future EU federal state and the incorporation of a military structure into the union which is closely aligned with NATO.
I am inclined to agree with commentators who have expressed the opinion that the Nice Treaty cannot be re-negotiated. Instead, the member-states should concentrate on the negotiation of a new European treaty which is scheduled for 2004. The process of drawing up the new treaty must deal in a substantive way with the issue of the "democratic deficit".
A wide-ranging debate involving citizens in all member-states on the pace and future direction of the European Union is desperately needed. This debate should include interest groups and other representatives of civil society.
European institutions such as the Commission or the European Parliament should organise trans-national round-tables bringing together public and private stakeholders in the various issue-areas of European policy-making. The results of the national debates and trans-national round-tables could then feed into the treaty-making process. Such a procedure would not only increase citizen involvement in EU treaty-making, but also lead to a greatly improved outcome. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr Deirdre De Burca, Greystones, Co Wicklow.