When Mr Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, arrives in Dublin this evening, his hosts will meet a weary, worried man. Ireland's rejection of the Nice Treaty came as a profound shock to the genial, bookish Italian and he admits to being puzzled about the reasons behind it.
Although Mr Prodi believes that the European Union can accept new members even if the treaty is not ratified, he is troubled by what he describes as a deep malaise that could be turning Ireland away from its traditional support for European integration.
In his office on the 12th floor of the Commission's Breydel building in Brussels this week, Mr Prodi insists the primary purpose of his three-day visit to Ireland is to listen rather than to talk. "I want to listen and one of my questions will be why you have changed so much," he said.
Mr Prodi will hold separate talks this afternoon with Mr Ahern, Ms Harney and Mr Cowen before attending a State dinner in his honour at Dublin Castle.
Tomorrow, he will meet the Opposition leaders and representatives of the social partners before what could be a bruising confrontation with leaders of the No to Nice campaign.
In a speech at University College Cork tomorrow afternoon, Mr Prodi is expected to explain that he understands how people might have reservations about the treaty but he will say it is the best agreement the EU member-states felt able to make.
He will not be calling for a second referendum on Nice, or telling the Irish people how they should vote if there is another referendum.
"I simply want to make that choice easier by explaining what I am doing. Because their choice is also about what we are doing in the future.
"So I want to explain what my vision of Europe is and it's up to the people to say if they like it or not. First listen, then clarify what I am doing. These are the two main issues," he said.
Some members of the Government believe Mr Prodi gave the No campaign a boost when, in a speech delivered a week before the referendum, he said the EU should levy a tax directly on European citizens to pay for its activities.
The Commission President reacts sharply to such criticism.
"It's time to speak clearly," he told me. "I don't think my speech changed the referendum. I said clearly that, for the new Europe, the Union must live on its own means. I never proposed any increase in taxation, everybody knows that. It was so clear that I was also specific in saying no increase in the burden of taxation." The prospect of the EU levying taxes was among the attributes that the Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, identified this week as dangerously close to those of an emerging super-state.
Although every European leader insists there is no question of turning the EU into such a super-state, British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke recently of Europe becoming a superpower. And anxiety about the future of the nation-state is widespread throughout the continent, not least in some of the candidate countries in central and eastern Europe.
Mr Prodi dismisses the idea of a super-state but insists that some transfer of sovereignty is necessary if nation states are to retain influence in the age of globalisation.
"I have the uncomfortable job of reminding people that there is a future, that we have to work for the future, that there are generations in front of us. I have to do that uneasy job of reminding people that without this decision the European nations will disappear from the world map. "I am recalling to everybody that what we are doing is the only condition whereby the European nations can preserve their strength and the possibility of having a voice. Because if they don't have a voice together, they will lose their voice. They will not exist. I think this has always been understood by Ireland, it has always in the past been a very pro-European country.
"I don't see - this is why I want to listen - what the deep malaise is on this point."
IN recent months, political leaders in France, Germany and Belgium have presented ambitious visions for the future of Europe. The Nice Treaty launched a structured debate on the EU's future development that will culminate in a new, treaty-making summit in 2004. At last week's summit in Gothenburg, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar warned that Europe's leaders were in danger of moving too swiftly and that too much change was leaving the citizens behind.
Mr Prodi snorts at this suggestion.
"I have never thought that Europe can be done in one day. We needed 45 years for the euro. I don't think that's such a thunderbolt speed. I always repeat that to build up working institutions we will need one generation. So how can you argue that Europe is moving too quickly? The problem is that in this case, when a referendum says No to a treaty like Nice which is moving at the speed of a snail, how can you say you refuse that because it is too quick?" he said.
Some EU observers claim that one of the Commission's most serious problems is Mr Prodi himself and that he has failed to distinguish himself in the two years since he moved to Brussels.
As they watch his bumbling appearances at press conferences, some Commission officials have muttered that their task would be a lot easier if they had a more poised, media-friendly president.
"To create a new institution is the most difficult job you can have in the world. On the one side you have to run day-to-day life and you have to (be) visionary sometimes. Sometimes they criticise me for saying too much. Sometimes I'm accused of being too careful and having a lack of vision," Mr Prodi said.
Throughout our conversation, Mr Prodi returns time and again to the puzzle he sees in the referendum campaign, which he believes to have focused mainly on issues outside the Nice Treaty.
A former professor of economics who served briefly as Italian prime minister, the Commission President conducts interviews as if they were university tutorials.
On this occasion, the question to be teased out concerns what the referendum result said about Ireland's broader attitude to Europe.
Mr Prodi suggests that one reason for the result could be the fear of change that people feel when they are doing well economically and have few social problems.
He is politically astute enough to know that any direct exhortation to back Nice in a second referendum is unlikely to be persuasive. But he is determined to find out what Ireland's true attitude to Europe is, both at an official level and among the public at large.
"I simply want to understand what you think about Europe and what should be the role of Ireland in Europe. If you really think that Europe has not been important for your country and if you believe that it will not be important for the future of your country," he said.
Mr Prodi is in no doubt about the importance of Europe's role in helping Ireland to achieve its present level of prosperity.
Reaching for a sheet of paper, he draws a diagram showing Ireland between the United States and continental Europe. He says that Ireland's educated, industrious workforce and dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit were major attractions for foreign investors. But he maintains that the level of investment would be dramatically smaller if Ireland did not have access to the European single market.
"I am happy to say that for the first time in history, Ireland is a wealthy country and I am proud to say that we have made a vital contribution.
"The big investments were for the big European market. These are companies that trade all over the world. They certainly need to be located where a huge market exists," he said.
"I think this is important."
Denis Staunton is Europe Correspondent of The Irish Times