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Irish Set to Okay E.U. Expansion, European Candidates Happy

“Ireland is giving a green light to enlargement,” says Prodi

DUBLIN, October 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Early referendum results indicated Sunday, October 20, that Irish voters will approve the European Union’s eastward expansion plans by a 2-1 margin, with advocates of a No vote virtually conceding defeat.

Seven of the country’s 42 constituencies have endorsed the Nice Treaty - which outlines the European Union’s expansion into eastern Europe and the Mediterranean in 2004 - by an average of 66.57 percent in electronic balloting, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Justin Barrett, a leader of the No to Nice coalition, told RTE radio: “We’ve taken a major step towards a European superstate - and that’s not going to do anyone any good.”

Counting of paper ballots in the rest of Ireland was to take all day Sunday, with final results from Saturday’s voting - eagerly awaited in Brussels and the enlargement capitals - expected around 5:00 pm (1600 GMT).

Six of the constituencies voting electronically were in Dublin, with the other being County Meath, northwest of the capital.

But Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney was confident of victory, 16 months after the Irish first rejected Nice by 54 percent in a referendum that took all of Europe by surprise.

“I think the vote here tonight in Dublin is representative of the country at large,” said Harney as the first results were announced.

“I expect the Nice treaty Yes vote will be 60-40 in favor tomorrow (Sunday) when the votes are counted.”

Garrett FitzGerald, a former Irish prime minister and a key figure in the Yes camp, said: “It’s true these are only Dublin results, but they’re clearly in favor of Yes. It’s almost unbelievable.”

“It’s good news for the 10 countries knocking on the E.U.’s door," he said. “It’s good news, too, for Ireland and its reputation.”

Ireland, one of the smallest E.U. member states with 3.9 million people, and the fastest-growing in economic terms, is also the only one of the 15 where the Nice Treaty was subject to a constitutional referendum.

Named for the French city where it was hammered out by E.U. leaders in December 2000, the treaty is a complex bundle of reforms intended to keep the bloc's decision-making machinery from seizing up after enlargement.

The European Commission said last week that 10 countries were poised to accede in 2004 - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Cyprus and Malta.

But without Irish approval of the Nice Treaty, E.U. officials warned, enlargement would be delayed many years, hurling the bloc into crisis and jeopardizing political and economic stability in the candidate states.

Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, keen to report a Yes result to his fellow E.U. leaders when they meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, had described the referendum as “a date with history.”

His government, backed by all major political parties, business leaders, trade unions and farm groups, campaigned more aggressively this time than in June 2001 when it wrongly took a Yes vote for granted.

The No camp, including Socialists, Greens and the nationalist Sinn Fein, sees the Nice Treaty as a threat to Irish jobs, influence in Brussels and a jealously-held policy of neutrality in global affairs.

The latter issue was of such concern that Ahern sought, and obtained, a declaration from fellow E.U. leaders at their last summit in Seville, Spain, in June that Irish neutrality was not at stake.

Not far from the surface of debate was concern among many that enlargement might trigger an influx of eastern European immigrants into Ireland, which after centuries of poverty saw its fortunes blossom after joining the E.U. in 1973.

In the closely watched Dublin North constituency, regarded as a bellwether for the rest of the country, voters were 66.47 percent in favor of the Nice treaty, electoral officials announced late Saturday night.

In other constituencies, support was strongest in Dun Laoghaire (73.29 percent), followed by Dublin South (72.41 percent), Dublin West (62.1 percent) and Dublin Mid-West (60.38 percent).

Dublin Southwest, the constituency that most strongly voted No in the last referendum by 61.58 percent, swung the other way Saturday, voting 56.87 percent in favor.

In the only constituency outside Dublin to use electronic voting, Meath, northwest of the capital, the Yes side claimed 65.31 percent.

E.U. officials and lawmakers welcomed initial results suggesting an Irish referendum had approved the Nice Treaty, paving the way for the bloc’s enlargement in 2004.

“Irish, and indeed European, eyes will be smiling tonight,” said Euro-MP Graham Watson after the overnight results from the Irish poll gave a clear victory to the Yes Camp.

European Commission President Romano Prodi said the Yes vote gave the green light for the E.U. to enlarge as planned, welcoming 10 mostly ex-communist countries as new members in 2004.

“The indication is even better than expected. Ireland is giving a green light to enlargement,” he told French radio station Europe 1.

Some diplomats were cautious ahead of the full results, expected later in the day.

“We have to wait for the full results, but I am optimistic that the Yes will (be a) majority,” a well-placed source told AFP.

Prodi, welcoming the preliminary results wholeheartedly, said: “It’s peace, it's the voice of Europe, it’s also our economic future and it’s the end of a tragic period. But it has to be done well, and with intelligence.”

European Union candidate countries, anxiously awaiting Ireland’s verdict on the bloc's expansion plans, on Sunday hailed early results indicating that Irish voters had given the project a thumbs-up.

“I’m pleased even though my joy has to remain under wraps for now. I think the initial results will be confirmed tonight,” Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who country is the biggest of 10 candidate countries, told reporters.

“I’m grateful to Irish authorities for having mounted a solid campaign,” Kwasniewski said, also expressing gratitude to the E.U. for “knowing how to listen to the worries of the Irish people.”

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis, whose country is one of three ex-Soviet Baltic states seeking entry, was similarly confident.

“We do not have final results, but the first ones show that the Irish population supported Nice agreement and opened the way for the E.U. enlargement,” Valionis told AFP.

“Now there are no obstacles left for enlargement and we hope that December 12 (the E.U.’s Copenhagen summit) will become the end of membership negotiations, enabling us to enjoy the E.U. from the beginning of 2004,” he said.

Lithuania’s Valionis said that he had not doubted the outcome of the referendum.

“The problem with the first referendum was that there was not enough preparation for it and too many questions. This time these mistakes were not repeated,” Valionis said.

The head of the E.U. executive also put an emphasis on France and Germany maintaining their cooperation in driving the European Union along, saying that without their impetus, “all the other countries are disoriented.”

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said in a statement: “Belgium welcomes the positive result of the Irish referendum ... (which) definitively opens the way for enlargement.”

British Euro-deputy Watson, head of the Liberal Democrats in the European parliament, said the Irish vote had “removed one of the last remaining hurdles to enlargement of the European Union.”