Ireland risks drawing a new iron curtain across Europe if it rejects the Nice Treaty, Labour leader Ruairí Quinn claimed today.
Mr Quinn said: "It took 40 years to dismantle the iron curtain that divided east from west. For us to hinder or delay EU enlargement will seem like a return to those times".
He said Ireland more than any other state should respond to the desire of applicant countries to join the EU with "generosity and solidarity".
Mr Quinn accused some opponents of the treaty of failing to see the woods for the trees. "They [opponents] say they support enlargement but find innumerable reasons to oppose its agreed basis. They purport to know more about the desires of the applicant states and their Governments than the states themselves.
"They are inherently defeatist about Ireland's capacity to argue for its national interest in Europe and they seek to defend the position of small states in the EU and at the same time oppose a treaty that will considerably alter EU membership in favour of small states".
Former Fine Gael leader Mr John Bruton said an endorsement of the Nice treaty would benefit small countries. Mr Bruton said: "If we approve Nice and enlargement takes place, that will bring in a disproportionately large number of other small states to join the European Union.
"This influx of small states will guarantee that, in future treaty revisions, the favourable treatment of small countries will continue to be maintained".
