The former Minister for Finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy, today accused European governments of failing to take enough responsibility for public indifference and hostility towards the EU.
Mr McCreevy, addressing the European Parliament in his new role as Commissioner, said there was a "lack of ownership" in EU capitals of the challenges facing the Union - not least its image problems.
Like all other appointees to the new 25-strong Commission team which takes office on November 1st, Mr McCreevy has to be formally approved by the European Parliament in a vote later this month. As such he spoke during a three-hour hearing to vet his suitability as the Commissioner in charge of running the single market.
Today, facing questions ahead of the vote, he vowed to help citizens and companies take full advantage of the single market, which guarantees free movement of goods, services and people across the borders of the 25 EU countries.
Only a successful single market could enable the EU to achieve the so-called "Lisbon Strategy" goal of creating the world's most dynamic economy by 2010, he said.
Those goals are already being revised downwards, and Mr McCreevy called for real commitment from national political leaders to tackle the problem. He said: "If we are to overcome indifference or even hostility to the EU among our citizens, then not only does what we do here in Brussels have to be relevant, but also the political leaders in member states must take on a greater responsibility in explaining to their citizens what it is we are trying to achieve.
"Nowhere is this lack of ownership by member states more apparent than in the Lisbon Strategy. We will never harness the full potential of the EU economy to deliver the levels of growth we need unless there is a real commitment from member states to address the issues involved."
Mr McCreevy went on: "I don't need convincing of the importance of the single market for the EU's competitiveness and for our overall prosperity.
"Ireland's economic success is not only the result of pursuing the right economic policies - it is in no small part due to Ireland successfully exploiting the opportunities of a vast single market. Economic success requires a properly functioning single market."
He vowed to reduce red tape and only introduce single market legislation where necessary to help it run more smoothly and, in common with his fellow new Commissioners, he remembered to tell the European Parliament that he would be consulting widely with Euro MPs before making policy.
Mr McCreevy said he was determined that the member states themselves took "greater ownership" of the single market - "It is, after all, their single market and that of their citizens and businesses. It is not the Commission's. In a European Union of 25 countries the single market cannot be run from one place - Brussels."