A No vote on the Nice Treaty would be "extremely damaging", the Taoiseach said today. But Mr Ahern said he had no doubt of a "strong" vote for the Treaty on June 7th.
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Bertie Ahern: says a vote against Nice would block the enlargement process
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Mr Ahern added: "There are many members of the public who still have questions they want answered.
"The case for the Nice Treaty is very simple and very compelling. It is fundamentally about enlargement. It is intended to prepare the European Union for the admission of 12 new members.
"It is simply untrue to say that Nice is not about enlargement or realistic to say that you are for enlargement but against Nice. If we vote against Nice we will be blocking the enlargement process."
EU enlargement would inevitably lead to a dilution of the power of each existing member-state, Mr Ahern said, but insisted the changes were "minor" with Ireland's share of the vote in the Council of Europe dropping from 3 per cent to 2 per cent.
Rejection of the treaty would, he said, "be a huge kick in the teeth to the applicant countries. It would create, I think, enormous bitterness and resentment by them - rightly so, in my view."
Referring to "No to Nice, No to Nato" campaign posters, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Cowen said: "We have no intention of joining Nato. By voting Yes to the Nice Treaty the people will not in any way compromise our military neutrality."
He said Ireland would only participate in EU-led missions which had a UN mandate and that involvement would be on a "case-by-case basis".
The Green Party, which is opposed to the Nice Treaty, says it is in favour of enlargement claiming the issue can be addressed outside the context of the Nice Treaty under the Amsterdam Treaty.
At the recent launch of the Greens leaflet campaign, Green MEP Ms Patricia McKenna called for Yes campaigners to concentrate on the substance of the Nice Treaty rather than orchestrating a smear campaign against No campaigners.
"The Nice Treaty is primarily about shifting power in the EU from the small states to the big states," she said.
"It automatically increases the voting power of the big States in the EU Council and Parliament, by 2005, even if not a single new member has joined by then.
"The 'enhanced co-operation' provisions of the Nice Treaty allow the more powerful countries to hijack the EU institutions for their own ends."
additional reporting PA
