Can Ireland stop EU enlargement?
By Angus Roxburgh BBC News Online, Brussels About 20 Irish journalists have been spending a couple of days in Brussels this week at the invitation of the European Commission and Parliament. With Ireland’s crucial vote on the EU’s Nice Treaty coming up in a fortnight, they have been treated to the best on offer in the “capital of Europe” – mussels and beer, and liberal helpings of pro-Europe propaganda. “Not a single critic of the Nice Treaty is allowed to meet the journalists visiting Brussels,” says Danish eurosceptic MEP, Jens-Peter Bonde. “This programme spends European taxpayer’s money in an undemocratic and biased manner.” Last obstacle It is hardly surprising, however, if the EU’s institutions are pulling out all the stops to influence the Irish to vote Yes to Nice on 19 October. ” The applicant countries have worked so hard for a decade to achieve this – and it’s within our power to tell them to go to hell ” Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern Their approval of the treaty is the l
