Ireland and the European Union: Identifying Priorities and Pursuing Goals - 2nd Edition 2003
Foreword
As I write, the European Union is on the brink of major change. It will, from 1 May 2004, be more than four times the size of its original membership and will stretch from the Atlantic to the Danube and from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean.
The task of managing and organising the work of an enlarged Union will be a major challenge. Valuable work on the institutional and other changes necessary to successfully manage a Union of twentyfive or more member states is being done at the European Convention. The proposed new draft constitutional treaty, which the Convention is expected to produce in June, will form an important basis for discussions between Governments when they meet together in an Inter-Governmental Conference to agree a new treaty.
Ireland has, from the outset, been fully engaged in the work of the Convention and, as we work with our European partners to forge a new treaty, we will seek to ensure that our vital national interests and values are reflected in the treaty.
Over the course of the last year, the Irish people had an opportunity to discuss and reflect on our membership of the European Union and our relationship with the Union. In a referendum last October, the Irish people decided convincingly to approve the Nice Treaty and, in so doing, signaled their clear desire that Ireland should remain at the heart of Europe.
This revised and updated Ireland and the European Union: Identifying Priorities and Pursuing Goals sets out our key national objectives in the European Union for the coming period. We will work tirelessly to achieve the aims set out in this document to build a better Ireland in a better Europe.
I look forward to 1 May 2004 when, as President of the European Council, I will welcome the accession states to full membership of the Union. I am confident that the European Union that they will join will be one which is more effective and efficient, more democratic and transparent, closer to its citizens and one of which all its citizens can be proud.
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