Republican News · Thursday 5 September 2002

Forum on Europe hits the road

The National Forum on Europe has embarked on a tour of the 26 Counties for a series of public meetings on the Nice Treaty, which kicked off in Drogheda on Tuesday.

The aim is to provide a neutral space to enable people in all areas to hear all sides of the argument on Europe and to have their say.

The Forum embraces all the political parties of the Oireachtas. It also contains representatives from a wide range of organisations, including the social partners and special interest groups active on both sides of the campaign. Forum Chairman, Senator Maurice Hayes, said "we will judge the success of the Forum by the numbers who turn out at our meetings and by the turnout in the forthcoming referendum".

"Many serious issues influenced people's decisions as to how they should vote in the last referendum.

"One of the most disturbing factors was the low turnout. I hope that through the work of the Forum we can reach out to those who chose not to vote, because they did not feel comfortable with the issues or the debate, were not sufficiently informed or did not see the relevance of it either to their own daily lives or to the future of their children."

Special conferences are being organised to address issues relating to women, young people and industrial and service workers. Research has shown that they are particularly disengaged by Europe and stayed away from the polling booths in the last Nice referendum.

There will also be special conferences focusing on farming, fisheries and rural Ireland.

Two plenary meetings will be held in Dublin Castle, on Thursday 5 September and Thursday 12 September. The latter meeting will be addressed by the Prime Minister of Finland, Pavlo Lipponen.

Some upcoming meetings

Monday 9 September - Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, 8pm

Tuesday 10 September - City Hall, Cork, 8pm

Monday 16 September - The Spa Hotel, Lucan, 8pm

Wednesday 18 September - Kees Hotel, Stranorlar, Co Donegal, 8pm