Labour has proposed that all EU directives, regulations and conventions be considered by the Oireachtas before being supported at European level by Irish Ministers.
In a private members' Bill, to be debated in the Dail next week, the party is also proposing the amendment of the Defence Acts to allow the Army to participate in the new EU Rapid Reaction Force but only where that force is operating under a UN mandate and where each decision to participate in a UN-mandated force is approved by resolution of the Dail.
The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said yesterday that he expected the Government to accept the underlying principles of the European Union Bill 2001 at second stage next week.
However, a Government spokesman said the Coalition would not accept the Bill, as it would make decisions on how to proceed only after its planned Forum on Europe had deliberated on the subject.
Mr Quinn told a press conference that Labour, like the Attorney General and former attorney general Mr John Rogers, believed the Oireachtas did not adequately scrutinise EU legislation. This "bad parliamentary practice" was at the root of problems over the democratic legitimacy of the EU.
Mr Quinn and the Labour Party president, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, cited as an example the Government's securing of an opt-out last week from an EU directive designed to ensure greater consultation in the workplace. This, Mr Quinn said, was "a significant use of executive power" and yet there had been no debate in Ireland.
The Bill would prohibit ministers from agreeing to any EU legal instrument unless the proposal was first laid before the Oireachtas by the appropriate minister. It should also be referred by the minister for consideration by the appropriate Oireachtas committee.
If a committee decided to consider the proposal and reported back to the Oireachtas, and if a resolution rejecting the proposal was passed by either the Dail or Seanad within 21 days, the minister would be obliged not to support it an EU level.
Each minister would be obliged to report to the appropriate committee every two months on significant developments in the EU in their policy area. The Oireachtas would also be empowered to annul statutory instruments made in the past, transposing a provision of European law into Irish law.
Proposals for joint action under the EU's common foreign and security policy would also have to be laid before the Oireachtas and referred to the appropriate committee. There would be an exemption where the minister deemed that urgent action was necessary.
In such cases, the Government would have to lay before both Houses a statement of the joint action agreed to and why it had been seen as urgent.