German foreign minister Mr Joschka Fischer visits Ireland today, the day after Chancellor Gerhard Schröder caused controversy by calling for the creation of a European government.
The disclosure is part of a sweeping package of proposed reforms for the European Union endorsed by Mr Schröder, his Social Democratic Party said.
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| German foreign minister Mr Joschka Fischer
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The proposals could cause controversy in the debate leading up to the referendum on the Nice Treaty, scheduled to take place in early June.
The Mayor of Sligo, Alderman Seán MacManus of Sinn Féin, called on the government to participate in a debate sovereignty and neutrality.
Addressing a party conference on the Treaty at the weekend, he accused the Government of attempting to "sow confusion in the debate".
Mr Fischer, who is in Dublin today to address the Institute of European Affairs, mooted similar proposals in a speech in Berlin last year.
Mr Schröder's feelings were disclosed yesterday while he was on a visit to Britain. The statement was seized upon by the Tory party in an effort to embarrass the British government in the election campaign.
"These proposals will lead Europe in the wrong direction. Chancellor Schröder and his allies in Britain and elsewhere are badly out of step," said Shadow foreign secretary Francis Maude.
"Tony Blair doesn't want to talk about his vision of the EU because he knows how out of touch Labour is on Europe with the mainstream majority of the British people.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "This is the latest contribution to the important debate on the reform of EU institutions.
"The Prime Minister set out his views on institutional reform in his Warsaw speech and that debate will continue in months to come."
The traditionally pro-European Liberal Democrat party, also expressed dismay. "Chancellor Schroder's proposals are a government too far. It would make much more sense for reform of the existing institutions to be Chancellor Schröder's priority before he embarks on proposals of this kind," their foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell warned.
Mr Schröder's ideas are set out in a draft policy document for a meeting of Germany's governing Social Democratic Party.
A party spokeswoman confirmed a report in Der Spiegelmagazine that the draft suggests turning the EU's executive Commission into a European government and giving the European Parliament full power over the 15-nation group's budget, nearly half of which goes for farm subsidies.
The document calls for the creation of a second chamber of the European parliament that would bring together national government ministers.
At the same time, Mr Schröder said some decision-making powers - for example, on EU aid for infrastructure projects - should be shifted back from the EU bureaucracy to national and regional levels.
Additional reporting PA