We won't lose right to commissioner until 2010

IRELAND will not lose its automatic right to an EU Commissioner until 2010 at the earliest, a study published yesterday says.

The study notes that by now 25 out of 26 mainstream European States have accepted the Nice Treaty, which is expected to go before Irish voters in a controversial second referendum in mid-October.

The study, Preparing the Union for Enlargement, has been compiled by Tony Brown, a former director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and long-time Labour Party activist. It was launched yesterday along with a second short booklet, Institutional Change: The Effect on Small States by Thomas Legge, a Brussels-based Irish academic.