Ahern claims ‘no’ vote will cause EU crisis

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has claimed that Ireland will present the EU with an unprecedented crisis if it fails to ratify the controversial Nice Treaty.

Mr Ahern was speaking as he presented the Forum on Europe with a report from the recent EU summit in Seville.

The Government has the support of Fine Gael in its efforts to overturn last year’s ‘no’ vote in the Nice referendum, but the Labour Party has expressed grave reservations.

Labour’s deputy leader Brendan Howlin said today that his colleagues will not support an “undemocratic” attempt to re-run the exact same referendum, even though it was rejected by 54% of voters last June.

Green Party MEP Patricia McKenna also said today that the Nice Treaty should be scrapped and she ridiculed the non-binding declarations on Irish neutrality which were published at the Seville summit.