"The debate appears complex to many as the issues, surrounding for example the future of the enlarged European Union, the composition of the European Institutions and the knock-on effects for us here in Ireland, are thrashed out.
"I can’t help but feeling, however, that many have of us has come to think of the European movement towards integration and co-operation solely in economic terms. Economic gain and advantage is an undeniably powerful motivation. It is understandable that from time to time our Euro-community life can cause us to narrow our focus on particular issues that are having far-reaching and disturbing consequences in human and national terms. Our awareness of and practical preparation for the advent of the Euro compounds this.
"I wonder are we in danger, however, of losing sight of the fact that the European ideal, although it was outwardly economic at first, was and is, in essence, a peace movement - a movement to reconcile, to create friendship, to engender goodwill, to break down barriers of culture, language and detrimental self-interest and to build a peace - a peace that would last.
There can be no doubt that this was what, in the main, energised and inspired the parents of the European Movement - Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schumann, and others (some of them at least driven by their Christian faith)."