The only prospect for enlargement of the EU is the Nice Treaty, and if it is rejected this State would face a constitutional crisis, the Minister of State for Europe, Mr Dick Roche, said yesterday.
Responding to an Irish Times report that the EU may seek Dáil backing for enlargement if the treaty is defeated, Mr Roche said that acquiescence with such a move would be beyond the constitutional powers of the Irish Government or the Dáil. He described the suggestion as merely "speculation" on behalf of EU officials who were unaware of the primacy of the Irish Constitution.
Conventional wisdom that five countries could still join the EU should the treaty be defeated was, in his opinion, wrong.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr Roche stressed that the only process for enlargement was Nice.
This was made clear in the recent declaration by the 10 applicant states in Warsaw, which made it absolutely clear that the only process of enlargement - and the only process for enlargement for any country - was Nice.
"Nice actually supersedes Amsterdam. We are heading into a constitutional crisis which is quite unprecedented," he warned.
Referring to the possibility of enlargement going ahead following a declaration by the Dáil - in effect, a "plan B" - Mr Roche said: "it makes no sense".
Asked to clarify his opinion that rejection of the Nice Treaty meant rejection of enlargement per se, Mr Roche said that "when the Amsterdam process was triggered in, when the decision was taken that we would go to 10 (new states) Nice was, Nice then became, the instrument for enlargement".
He noted that, should the referendum be defeated, there would be no new states joining on January 1st, 2004, which meant no new states in the EU Parliament elections in 2004 - which in turn meant that the parliament could not be reformed for a further seven years.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, told the meeting that "obvious questions such as 'why is Ireland saying we cannot join?'" would be asked by the applicant countries if Ireland rejected the treaty.
He was confident Irish people could distinguish between domestic matters - particularly in relation to the economy and perceived cuts in the health service - and the European interest.
