Brussels, 14/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Peter Sutherland, Stanley Crossick, Hywel Ceri Jones, Max Kohnstamm and John Palmer, of the European Policy Centre, state that, following the rejection of the Nice Treaty by the Irish people: - there must be no delay in completing enlargement negotiations; - there should be an acceleration of the constitutional process which is now envisaged for 2004; - the Laeken Summit must give fresh impetus to this process by setting out "a comprehensive and detailed agenda for constitutional reform, and the process to give it effect".
In a press release, The EPC notes that "a coalition of nationalists, pacifists and right wing Catholics were able to mobilise more supporters than the combined weight of the major political leaders, the employers and the trade unions", and that the campaign for the referendum "was not helped by the sometimes sour and ill-informed criticisms of the EU by government ministers". "One minister said that the Nice Treaty gave away too much power to 'unelected Brussels'' bureaucrats. Another said that Ireland had "more in common with Boston than Brussels", the press release points out. The EPC does, however, believe that it would be a mistake to put the blame for what happened in Ireland exclusively on Irish political leaders, as "what happened could well have happened in other EU countries had the process of ratification required other popular referenda". According to the think tank, "too many political leaders appear to have lost the capacity to answer the fundamental question - "Why Europe?", but will not be able to evade the question for long. What happened in Ireland must "inspire the incoming Belgian EU Presidency to ensure that the Laeken Declaration "sets out an agenda for the future reform laying down the "basis for a comprehensible constitution, a new partnership in the governance of the EU between the European supranational institutions, Member States governments and, where appropriate, their constitutional regions". This agenda should "reflect the fundamental values, democratic aspirations and citizens' rights which have marked the development of Europe's historic evolution from conflict and division", the EPC concludes.