Sir, - Patricia McKenna MEP cannot have it both ways. In her letter of June 8th, she criticises the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, for warning that a second rejection of the Nice Treaty by the Irish electorate will delay enlargement. However, in her next paragraph, she accuses the president of playing the same game as the more powerful EU countries who want to stall enlargement. These statements obviously contradict each other.
Ms McKenna's assertion that the Nice Treaty would create a two-tier Europe, with new member-states being granted second-class membership, is simply not true. With the exception of a few transitional arrangements, the candidate countries, on joining, will acquire the same rights and entitlements as the existing member-states. They will not be treated any differently from previous new members, including Ireland.
It is Ms McKenna, not President Prodi, who is indulging in scaremongering. By trying to block ratification of the Nice Treaty, she is putting the enlargement project at risk. Indeed, she is asking us to continue the two-tier Europe which currently exists, between countries who are members of the EU and non-member countries anxious to join.
It is certainly true that the Amsterdam Treaty provided for an increase in the current membership from 15 to 20, but now 10 candidate countries have been deemed by the current 15 member-states to be ready to join.
Would Ms McKenna, who is so anxious to protect the candidates' interests, care to indicate which five of these 10 countries should be excluded?
The institutions of the European Union and the Governments of the 15 current member-states fully support enlargement. Enlargement will not only benefit the candidate countries but also the current member-states, including Ireland. All previous enlargements have produced win-win results, bringing political, economic, social and other benefits to all EU citizens. Are we going to deny these benefits to five countries? - Yours, etc.,
ALAN GILLIS,
Chairman,
The European Movement
Nassau Street,
Dublin 2.
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Sir, - Our new Government, in declaring itself in favour of a re-run of the Nice referendum, has moved to allay the fears of some of those who voted against the treaty by announcing its intention to have a declaration of Irish neutrality attached to the treaty. It has, however, also been made clear that such an attachment would not have any legal binding force.
May I suggest to the Government that any new referendum on the treaty should be so worded that, if successful, the proposed declaration on neutrality would then become a clause in our own Constitution? This would give it the necessary legal binding force. If the Government is sincere in making the declaration, surely it can have no objection to such a step. - Yours etc.,
HARRY McCAULEY,
Maynooth,
Co Kildare.
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Sir, - The Government has just announced that it is to re-run the Nice Treaty referendum - presumably because it did not like the result. I did not like the result of the General Election. Can we re-run that too? - Yours, etc.,
RICHARD BANNISTER,
Sir John Rogerson's Quay,
Dublin 2.