The President of the European Commission has declared that the Nice Treaty is a political condition for inviting the formerly communist states of central and eastern Europe to join the EU.
Mr Romano Prodi is understood to be deeply worried about Ireland's rejection of Nice, which political leaders in other member-states fear could halt the enlargement the EU to the east. Mr Prodi has promised to listen to the Irish people during his visit and he will today meet leaders of the No to Nice campaign.
Speaking in Dublin at the start of a three-day visit to Ireland, the Commission President sought to clarify remarks he made in this newspaper to the effect that Nice was not legally necessary for EU enlargement.
"Legal experts said we could have enlargement without ratification. But we have political engagement, and the view of all the governments is that we have to ratify Nice for enlargement," he said.
EU diplomats had reacted with astonishment yesterday morning to Mr Prodi's statement that EU enlargement could proceed even if the Nice Treaty was not ratified. One senior EU diplomat described the intervention as "a political catastrophe".
The Government contacted the Commission early yesterday to ascertain whether Mr Prodi had been quoted accurately. The Commission confirmed that yesterday's report was "an accurate record of the interview" Mr Prodi gave to The Irish Times.
But before he left for Dublin, Mr Prodi told reporters in Stockholm that the reforms agreed in Nice Treaty was necessary to prevent paralysis in an enlarged EU and that he had always accepted the treaty was a political condition for enlargement. In the Dail yesterday, the Taoiseach drew attention to this clarification.
"He believes the changes contained in the Nice Treaty are necessary for an enlarged Union to work and so the treaty is a political condition for enlargement," said Mr Ahern.
Commission sources said that after last week's referendum result, Mr Prodi asked the Commission's legal experts if enlargement would be possible within the terms of the Amsterdam Treaty. He was told it would be possible to accept new members by including extra clauses in each accession treaty.
But the Commission President acknowledged last night that EU enlargement and the reforms that should precede it are essentially political rather than legal processes.
"We are in a political engagement, I'm a politician, and our engagement of all the governments of the Commission is that we have to ratify Nice because we have to give the changes that make Europe work," he said.
After his meeting with the Taoiseach, however, Mr Prodi repeated that there is no question of renegotiating any part of the treaty to meet Irish concerns. "The Nice Treaty is the Nice Treaty, you can't change a treaty that has been decided by all the countries," he said.
At the Commission's headquarters in Brussels yesterday, Mr Jean-Christophe Filori said the Commission was confident the Government would find a way to ensure the Nice Treaty could be ratified.
"The political message today is that we assume we will go on with ratification. If at the end of the day it appears we have to look at another solution, we'll look at it," he said.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach and Tanaiste have made separate declarations that Ireland's future must involve "full engagement" with the EU. Mr Ahern told a dinner in honour of Mr Prodi last night that "support for the European Union and Ireland's full engagement in it is a fundamental cornerstone of Government policy".