Quotes
We had an abuse of our constitution where people were coming to Ireland, having a baby, some of them leaving immediately and then claiming EU citizenship in other countries.
We had a procedure that a referendum commission had to equally put the arguments for and against.
We had a huge number of deaths as we now see in the Middle East. And people have to work together and we never would have sorted it out militarily, we had to try and find a new accommodation. And while we're not there yet at least we don't have the difficulties that are there.
We are very much basing the bait around multilateralism, where we all must work together and get the United Nations back centrally involved.
W e did change the referendum procedure where both sides were put under state money.
Unfortunately there still is conflict and there still is a lot of hostility and there still is breaches of what would be the norm of civilised society elsewhere. Thankfully we do not have the level of killing and bombing and mayhem that we had for 30 years. We still have a job to do.
They've brought in huge justice and home affairs reforms. There are doubts about some of the issues about whether the reforms will be fully implemented but we can understand that - I think it takes time for these things to happen.
They do not want to be ruled from London. They want to rule their own system in those areas that they have again the powers to do it and I think we all have to help them. And Prime Minister Tony Blair and I are very committed to trying to deliver that for them.
They are making progress, they have to, everybody has to follow the same system, they have to comply with the same regulations and they have to comply with the various criteria.
There's no restrictions insofar as you're not going to democratically stop people from wanting to put in money, which I think is what he would like me to do, which I won't.
There were a few hundred people involved in that - parliamentarians, elected parliamentarians, officials, governments - working together through all the rules that have been there since the Treaty of Rome to bring forward a constitution that set out clearly what it is that Europe wants to do.
There is a Russian Summit later on this year, which I'll co-chair, where they're looking for equal access, they have not got that.
There are people who are associated with political groupings still involved in paramilitarism, not near as much, we're thankful for what's been achieved. But as long as it happens it poisons the democratic system.
There are a lot of pluses but I think that a community and a country like Turkey that will come into the community, it brings different cultures.
Then it opens up, I think, what the questioner's saying - will the opportunities of movement apply then? - Yes they will. Will the opportunities that are open to everybody else apply to them? - Yes they will.
The Union is complicated, complicated obviously because it has different frameworks, it has different institutions, it has a parliament, it has a commission, it has member states, in some sense it's intergovernmental.
The timing of the bombings was clearly designed to wreak the greatest level of havoc and carnage. They are an attack on the democratic process and cannot be justified by any political cause.
The EU law cannot override what is in somebody's constitution and particularly I cannot have any say where they have not competences and of course they have not got competence everywhere.
The educational council have been working on this and doing this but it is an important area.
The charter of fundamental rights - what rights does a citizen of Europe have. And putting those together in a readable document that can be read by anybody who is not a constitutional lawyer.