Convention to decide if Europe’s future shaping up as a success

THE Convention on the Future of Europe is taking shape better than most believed.

Proposals about the real issues of what the EU will look like and how it will operate are being debated.

Most countries are playing a role and coming forward with proposals and studies.

Even the candidate countries, busy as they are with finalising their membership negotiations, are playing their part in shaping the future of the union.

There has been a sense up to now that Ireland had to stand back and not rock the boat while the battle to pass the Nice Treaty was fought.

The official stance of the government seemed to be that there should be no change in the EU.

But this is not possible, and since every other member and would-be member is busy putting its stamp on the convention, the Irish government must start working not just to retain the status quo, but to take part in the work to seek new ways to develop the massive undertaking that is the European Union.

If it does not, then it has learned nothing from the rejection of Nice by the Irish public, despite their being in favour of enlargement.

The country cannot afford not to be fully engaged in the future of the EU, and if it is not, the Government will find itself fighting a rearguard action to again fend off peoples’ fears grown from ignorance.

Former Fine Gael leader John Bruton and Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa are working diligently on coming up with ideas and putting them forward.

Mr Bruton is in a strong position as one of just 14 on the steering committee of the convention, as chair of one of the important committees, and vice-president of the largest political grouping in the European Parliament, as is Mr De Rossa as a vice-chair of the Socialists, the second largest grouping in the parliament.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern appointed former Commissioner Ray McSharry as its representative, but as expected, he has now bowed out and his place is being taken by Minister for Europe, Dick Roche.

At the end of the day, the power to decide on the future shape of the union will be with the leaders of the member states when they meet, possibly in Dublin in 2004, to pick and choose what they like best from the convention proposals.

The Irish leader will have little room for manoeuvre if the government has not played its full part in the convention.

And despite the powerful positions held by Mr Bruton and Mr De Rossa, the government will be the power broker negotiating for what it believes best suits the Irish electorate in the end.

With Nice out of the way and hopefully accepted by the Irish electorate in Saturday’s ballot, Ireland will have an opportunity for a fresh start.

The candidate countries’ confidence in, and identification with, Ireland can be regained and there can be few better fora for this than the convention.