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Wednesday August 14, 2002 14:45
by Andrew
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Can anyone answer a question: Patricia McKenna has publicly said that enlargement can go ahead even if we vote against Nice, is this true?
I ask this in light of the fact that 'the Irish ingrate' (got all the EU loot and slammed the door in the face of others) was widely touted in the European press after the last referendum.
Enjoy - Ectopia
slan.
...current treaties limit EU membership to 20 countries, which leaves room for another 5 to join. There are more than 5 states that want to join, but most of those are at least a couple of years away from qualifying for membership.
All countries who want to join the EU may join the EU without the Nice Treaty in the same way as all previous successful applicants joined the EU without a treaty being required.
There are provisions in the Treaty which say how an enlarged parliament, council etc would work in terms of distribution of voting rights etc but you will find that these comprise a very small part of the Treaty and those parts themselves are controversial (eg no permanent representation on the commission and even when we do get to nominate a commissioner, the rest of the countries may veto our own choice!).
There is a huge amount of material in the treaty which has absolutely no connection with enlargement. The fact that the treaty is not required to allow new members into the EU was admitted by the (unelected) EU Head Honcho Romano Prodi last year.
The Nice Treaty isn't about enlargement - its about restructuring the way the EU operates.
50 other countries could join with seperate accession treaties - just like Ireland and Spain and Greece, etc. did. Every present EU nation would have to agree - as it's always been (remember when France vetoed the UK/Ireland acession?).
Nice uses the fact of enlargement to restructure the EU in favour of the big powers.
It's about restructuring the EU - not about enlargement, and not about neutrality.