The Danish Foreign Minister, Mr Per Stig Moeller, yesterday highlighted the dangers EU enlargement may face if Ireland votes against the Nice Treaty in the referendum in October.
If Ireland were to reject the treaty, thereby invalidating the legal basis for enlargement, Mr Moeller said, "we would have an unpredictable crisis, one which we have not had before in Europe".
Mr Moeller was speaking at a press conference to mark Denmark's presidency of the EU, which begins on Monday.
Speaking at the same press conference in Copenhagen, the Danish Prime Minister, Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, issued a stern warning to EU member states against delaying their decision on enlargement, currently set for December, saying it could stall Eastern European candidates' entry for years.
"We cannot ask candidate countries to wait longer. It is now that we must live up to our responsibilities and put an end to a dark chapter of European history by opening our doors to the former countries of the East," he said two days ahead of the start of Denmark's six-month EU presidency.
"This is why we must stick very closely to the calendar we have created for ourselves," Mr Rasmussen said, referring to December 12th and 13th, when the 15 EU leaders are to vote on enlargement. Under the timetable established last year, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta are expected to wrap up accession agreements by the end of this year and enter the EU in 2004.
In order to keep the December deadline, Danish officials have stressed, candidate countries must conclude accession talks by the end of September.
Mr Rasmussen urged member states "not to block this historic decision because of economic reasons". But negotiators have stumbled on the sensitive issue of farm subsidies, amounting to €40 billion a year. Mr Rasmussen warned against "an amalgam between agricultural reform and enlargement," saying that "we may risk failure on both fronts."
Eastern European and Balkan countries hoping to join the EU at a later stage said on Friday that they were pinning their hopes on Denmark's presidency.