The Green Party claimed today "one of the biggest lies of the entire campaign is that a rejection of the Nice Treaty will prevent enlargement".
Unveiling its policy paper, Enlargement without Nice, at a press conference in Dublin today, Green Party leader Mr Trevor Sargent said: "We have always said that enlargement can go ahead, as it has in the past, by way of Accession Treaty and through the Amsterdam Treaty.
This fact has been supported by the president of the EU Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, and by the president of the Convention on the Future of Europe, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
"If Nice was really about enlargement then why not wait for the accession countries to join before its provisions come into force?" he asked.
Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna said "those who say that the Nice Treaty is about enlargement need to explain to the voters what the other 72 pages are actually about".
"Enlargement is mostly dealt with in Declaration 20 attached to the treaty. Declarations are not legally binding and can be adopted without ratifying the Nice Treaty," she said.