The Right Reverend Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, speaking today at a gathering of European Churches in Porvoo, Finland, referred to the forthcoming Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty, and said that the debate has focussed too much on what we get from Europe to the exclusion of what we can offer of ourselves as a nation within the European Union.

He said:

"It is not our belonging to the European Union which is at stake, but rather, the credibility of that belonging. It is regrettable that the debate so far has focussed almost entirely on what we will get from Nice, what it will do for us and what we will end up with.

"What is equally important is that Ireland should be in Europe in the most potent way possible; ready to offer what we are, and mindful that we as a small nation have much to bring to the wider European scenario. It's not only about what we get (and we have received so much), it's equally about what we as a people have to offer to the wider European household."

The Bishop was speaking at a gathering of Anglican and Lutheran Churches to mark the tenth anniversary of the Porvoo Agreement an agreement establishing full communion between the Anglican Churches (including the Church of Ireland) in Ireland and Great Britain on the one hand, and the Nordic and Baltic Lutheran Churches on the other. As an ecclesiastical grouping in northern Europe it represents 40 million Christians.