The referendum result in June showed that we can no longer assume the Irish people will take the benefits of European integration as given

Bertie Ahern

Ireland is the only country which needs to ratify the Nice treaty by referendum.

Its rejection by the Irish people was an embarrassing defeat for Taioseach Bertie Ahern's party Fianna Fail, which had strongly backed a Yes vote - a new referendum has to be held by the end of next year.

But Mr Ahern was showing no sign of defeat as he outlined the aims of the Forum on Thursday.

"We have always punched above our weight on the European stage," he said.

Talk shop

The main opposition party, Fine Gael, shares Fianna Fail's hope that the treaty will be ratified, but has dismissed the Forum as a "Euro talk-shop", and will not be taking part.

But not all parties represented on the Forum will be defending the treaty.

The Green Party does not consider ratification necessary for EU enlargement, and has stated that it hopes that the forum will "not be narrowly focused but truly provocative and far-seeing".

The Socialist Party rejects what it describes as the "two-tier Europe proffered in the Nice treaty". Deputy Joe Higgins argues that the purpose of the Forum should be "neither to sweet-talk nor to panic the electorate into passing Nice".

Fighting apathy

However, all participating political parties agree on the need to focus on broad questions raised by Ireland's membership of the EU. The forum's weekly meetings will debate such matters as the separation of powers between the EU and its members states, and ways that treaties might be simplified.

I will not be a 'salesman' for any patented nostrums, trying to get the forum participants to buy into any particular vision of the future

Forum chairman Senator Maurice Hayes

One of the biggest obstacles the forum will seek to overcome before the referendum is voter apathy.

Only one in three voters turned out to vote in June.

"The extremely low turn-out has shown a failure to engage and maintain the public's interest in the EU," Bertie Ahern admitted as he launched the forum on Thursday.

And with a general election expected before the referendum, Fine Gael is accusing the government of "kicking the issue into touch" and dodging difficult decisions in the pre-election period.