Leading Polish public figures appealed to Irish voters today to back EU enlargement, one week before Nice Treaty referendum polling day.
"A strong vote for the treaty at the referendum would be a big gesture towards European solidarity," said the appeal published in the daily Rzeczpospolita.
|
"A no vote would give support to the enemies of the EU who won't look back," said the letter, signed by among others, former prime minister Mr Tadeusz Mazowiecki, former foreign ministers Mr Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and Mr Bronislaw Geremek, and Oscar award-winning Polish filmmaker Mr Andrzej Wajda.
Three million voters go to the polls on October 19th for a second constitutional referendum vote on the treaty.
Pro-European Polish non-governmental organizations have also launched letter and email writing campaigns to urge Irish voters to vote yes this time.
The treaty has to be ratified by every EU country before the end of the year or it will fall. Only Ireland requires a constitutional amendment to ratify it - the other 14 EU countries have already accepted it by votes of their parliaments.
While recognizing that the treaty is not perfect, the Polish public figures said its approval would allow "Europe to maintain stability on the continent which should never again be divided by barbed wire and mine fields."