We’re debating a Bill that gives legislative effect to two changes to the EU treaties. One relates in part to the referendum that was just held last week, and the other relates to the referendum held on the Lisbon Treaty 3 years ago.

I remember when Lisbon 2 was passed the conclusion was that there would be little new on the horizon by way of attempting to amend the functioning of the European Union. The internal naval gazing was done and the immediate future would be spent examining the EU’s role in external issues. The pundits were wrong.

It is a fact of our relationship with Europe now that we proceed by referendum. That on the main issues of the day we consult the people before we can continue.

We will be consulting them again in the near future for it is certain that there is more to come in our quest to save the Euro. But we don’t need to march blindly on, wondering what changes may come and then discussing them only at the last minute in the pressure of a referendum campaign, where other interests and other political motives come in to play.

A massive shift in the functioning of the EU is under way through these efforts to make the currency union a viable one. It’s time we started talking about the end game – what we believe it should be, and what we are willing to do to get there.

We need our own vision for Europe and our place in it. And now is the time to begin that discussion. We have room now, with the Stability Treaty passed and access to funding guaranteed post 2013.

We have our fiscal stability plan. But currency unions require more than that. Eurobonds, direct ESM intervention in the banking system, require more than that. They require more than just coherence in planning. They require coherence in fiscal instruments at the very least (taxation), if not some form of central control of the fiscal levers of the State.

So it’s time to figure out where we stand on some of our key taxation issues, if we’re to understand and chart the right direction for the future of Europe.

Where do we stand on a Financial Transaction Tax? We say we will only move with the UK, but they are not inside the Euro. We say we will not budge on our corporation tax – but would we give control of this up, even if only in principle, if it meant a write-off of the legacy banking debt, some 68 billion? If not, that has implications for our future with the Euro.

These are key questions in so far as the current direction that Europe is taking led by Chancellor Merkel. Better to prepare for them now, to prepare for ours and Europe’s future. Because a bigger referendum is surely to come. We need the Euro to survive. It’s time to start asking ourselves some honest questions about what we are willing to do to make sure that it does, and us with it.

And it seems to me that the constitutional convention, that is soon to be established, might just be the best place to do this. It would make sense to put it on their agenda and it should be one of the very first questions they consider. We should also establish a committee in here to look at the same issues. If Europe is going in the wrong direction for us we need to see that now so that we can start changing it, quickly.