Two former Maltese prime ministers warned last night that neutrality would not be guaranteed for Malta or Ireland under the terms of the Nice Treaty, despite assurances from EU leaders.
Mr Dom Mintoff, Labour prime minister 1971-84, and his successor, Dr Karamenu Mifsud Bonnici, have returned to the political stage in Malta to intervene in the island's referendum debate on EU entry.
They have formed a new movement, Malta Arise, to urge voters to say No to membership unless special arrangements are made beforehand to guarantee Malta's neutrality and its freedom to protect jobs from European competition.
Mr Mintoff said that although Mr Bertie Ahern won an unequivocal pledge from EU leaders at the Seville summit that the Nice Treaty would not affect Ireland's or any other country's constitutional neutrality, such declarations were not binding.
The future arrangements of the EU - including the treaty's provision for the development of European and defence structures that would include a 60,000-strong rapid reaction force - will not be set in stone until the intergovernmental conference of 2004.
"How can the guarantees given to the Irish on neutrality be trusted?" he told The Irish Times last night. "They don't even know what the structure of Europe will be."
All 12 countries which applied to join in the current round of enlargement were assured during negotiations that no traditionally neutral country would be forced to join in EU military activities.
But they were also told that as a condition of entry all members must give "active and unconditional support to the implementation of the common foreign policy and security policy in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity".
Mr Mintoff said this condition could prove incompatible with neutrality once a defence and security structure was in place.
He raised the spectre of pressure being brought to bear to allow use of Malta as a staging post or base for Rapid Reaction Force activities or in support of action against Iraq.
He said he feared this would put Malta in the front line of what he referred to apocalyptically as the coming crisis between the West and the Islamic world, including north Africa.
The US had already used Maltese ports to refit its warships carrying helicopters and missiles for the war in Afghanistan, in breach of a constitutional clause denying the use of the island's shipyards "to the military vessels of the two superpowers", he said.
Until now Maltese opinion has been divided between the ruling Nationalist Party's Yes campaign and the Labour Party's No drive, with the Yes campaign thought to have a slight edge.
But the comeback of Mr Mintoff, still a dominant character at 86, and of Dr Bonnici (69) has created a "frenzy of interest", according to the Malta Today newspaper.
Two lengthy programmes on Malta state television and a commercial channel, Smash, chalked up the highest audiences of the year, according to station representatives.
The interest comes from supporters and opponents alike, many of whom have not forgiven Mr Mintoff for toppling his own party from power in 1998 when they had a one-seat majority, although Dr Bonnici is still a Labour Party member.