The EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr Franz Fischler, said it would be "a nonsense" to threaten Irish farmers that they would be punished if they voted against the Nice Treaty.
Addressing a group of Irish agriculture and political journalists, the Commissioner, who was defending his Common Agriculture Policy reform package said: "That is not the way to discuss a common future."
He said that as a democrat, he could not defend such threats and said a No vote would create problems for enlargement and a different way would have to be found. Dr Fischler advised Irish farmers not to confuse reform of the CAP with the treaty because they were two different issues.
"I have no alternative but to put forward the reforms to protect European and Irish farmers. I am not saying the reforms are easy but look at the alternatives, there are none," he said.
Dr Fischler said Europe had always taken care of Irish farmers and Ireland received €1.2 billion more in farm subsidies from Brussels than it pays into the CAP.
He said the changes put forward were being seen by Irish farmers as a threat. "But in this specific case, the opposite is true, It would be a threat to CAP, to Irish farmers, if we would not act now. Just to wait and see would be irresponsible," he said.