Irish 'Yes' Vote Clears Way To EU Enlargement
In a clear 'yes' vote yesterday the Irish ratified the Nice Treaty, voting by
a margin of 62.9% to 37.1% to approve the revised European Union treaty which
permits enlargement of the Union by a further ten members and introduces new
decision procedures to allow for the extra members. Last year in a similar referendum the vote went the other way, and this re-run
had been seen as a crucial decider in the enlargement process. Ireland is the
only country which needed a referendum to approve the treaty, which in all other
member states could be ratified by a vote of the legislature. A relieved Bertie Ahern, Irish prime minister, said the referendum result showed
that Ireland "wants to welcome the nations of the applicant countries with
open arms". That understandable piece of euphoria is far from the truth,
of course. In the minds of the Irish voters the referendum was about all kinds
of things, and enlargement was just one of them. Leszek Miller, Poland's prime minister, said he would drink a glass of Guinness
and sing 'I Love you like Ireland'. Poland is the largest of the 10 proposed
new EU members, which also include Cyprus and Malta. Markets now expect currencies in the applicant countries to strengthen and
bond yields to fall, handing profits to those who have bet an estimated 15bn
dollars on the success of the enlargement process. .
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