Pressure increases on Ireland to vote Yes

THE pressure has increased on Ireland to ratify the Nice Treaty with the European Commission’s announcement that 10 countries are ready to join the union in 2004.

Yesterday, the commissioner responsible for overseeing enlargement, Gunter Verhoygen, said: “The entire project is dead if a member state’s parliament fails to ratify the treaty.”

The other 14 member states have ratified the treaty, but the 74 million citizens in the 10 candidate countries must wait for Ireland’s ballot on Saturday week to know if they will be admitted.