The Minister for Foreign Affairs has told fellow EU foreign ministers today Ireland remains totally committed to the European Union despite rejecting the Nice Treaty.
|
|
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Cowen.
|
Mr Cowen delivered the reassurance at talks in Luxembourg. He set out the Government's deep support for EU enlargement - a project which cannot go ahead unless all member-states approve the treaty by the end of next year.
And the rest of the EU delivered support in return, issuing a declaration noting Ireland is "deeply and fully committed" and offering "every help possible" in sorting out the problem.
They insisted the enlargement process - designed to usher a dozen central and eastern European countries into the EU in the next few years - is going full steam ahead.
Mr Cowen said Irish Ministers have still not established what prompted the public to revolt.
He said there was no single reason and some of the protest vote was aimed at issues unaffected by the treaty's approval or rejection.
He said the next legal advice available to the Government was that a referendum on an EU treaty change was requiredbut other factors - including a low turnout - interfered in what should have been a straightforward vote endorsing the necessary EU internal changes needed to make enlargement workable.
Mr Cowen said: "There are no simple solutions to this problem but it is our firm intention that that difficulty we have encountered should be resolved in time to keep the timetable for enlargement."
He went on: "We are still assessing and distilling the reasons for this rejection. There were a variety of elements and no single reasons or set of reasons for it. But the result does not alter the Government's full commitment to the EU."
Earlier Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mr Aidan O'Hara told ireland.comMr Cowen would not seek a time extension from the EU to analyse last Thursday's rejection.
And Mr O'Hara predicted Mr Cowen would receive a "relatively warm" reception from the foreign ministers despite a warning from the EU Commissioner responsible for enlargement Mr Guenter Verheugen that enlargement will not be possible unless Ireland ratifies the treaty.
Meanwhile Swedish Prime Minister Mr Goran Persson has said Ireland's rejection of the treaty threatened to delay or block EU expansion. "This risks if not stopping, at least delaying enlargement," Mr Persson said.
"The entire treaty we agreed on in Nice is aimed at making possible EU enlargement," he said.
Mr Persson's remarks, during a debate in the Swedish parliament today, contrasted with what he had said on Friday - the referendum result would not delay or postpone the EU's eastward enlargement.
Additonal reporting PA &