Are you in favour of EU Enlargment???

Chaos-Engine

1. Yes, I am in favour of enlargement of the EU regardless of the NICE treaty
2. No, I am against enlargement of the EU regardless of the NICE treaty
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I voted "No to the Nice treaty" not because of enlargement... I voted NO because the Nice treaty allows for rotating commissionerships and it brings more power to the larger states...

The Government of ireland, the EU and the various candiate countries amung others have all critisied the people of Ireland for voting No to Nice. First saying that we are against enlargement and that we don't want eastern europe to benefit from the EU like we have.

I firmly believe that the vast majority of the people of Ireland are in favour of enlargement and voted NO to Nice because of the need for reform in the EU and democratic accountability.
Can you imagine what would happen if we didn't have a commissioner... Tax harmonisation, security issues etc

king of fifa

i thought the reason we rejected nice was because we would lose our neutrality?

mike65

IRELAND WILL NOT LOOSE ITS NEUTRALITY!

That was a bogus argument put about by thr Greens and other peaceniks here. The German Greens had no problem (and no-one comes any greener).

Chaos, your sub-question is wrong as enlargement will be restricted to 5 countries if Nice is rejected again so it can't be regardless, the treaty does matter.

Anyway I'm in favour of enlargement as the peoples of East Europe are no less deserving of membership than this country was 30 years ago. Also its good for Irish buisness and bad for farmers which is a good thing in my book, as millions of Polish farmers will force change of the CAP. Its proberly wiser to have the people on the inside than looking in enviously. I exclude Turkey in this as they have got so far to travel with respect to basic human rights and such (and they're not actually in Europe).

Mike.

Chaos-Engine

Originally posted by mike65
Chaos, your sub-question is wrong as enlargement will be restricted to 5 countries if Nice is rejected again so it can't be regardless, the treaty does matter.

I mearly stated that the Nice treaty is not an issue.... Forget the rules and regulations in the EU about enlargement.... Just plainly are you in favour of it. I agree that Nice has nothing to do with Neutrality. Thats why I wasn't bothered mentioning it. Nice has been labelled as about Enlargment when if you have taken any time to read the offical summaries of the Nice treaty you will in fact discover that changing the structure of the voting mechanism is highlighted formost over Enlargment...

Offical Summary of the Nice treaty

The Nice treay will give Ireland only double the number of votes after enlargement while German, Italy, Britain and France will get triple their number of votes in teh council of ministers.

I am currently formulating some explainations behind the Nice treaty (unbiased hopfully) regarding the hijacking of the EU by the BIG Four...

Boston

Originally posted by mike65
IRELAND WILL NOT LOOSE ITS NEUTRALITY!

That was a bogus argument put about by thr Greens and other peaceniks here. The German Greens had no problem (and no-one comes any greener).
Mike.

like i listen to the greens :rolleyes:, of course ireland will loose its neutrality, unless of course your suggesting that the rest of the eu will become neutral.

German isnt a neutral country, so i dont see why german greens would be worried at all about ti loosing something it doesnt have.

Anyway im infavor of inlargement, but not all the crap they tacted on with it. the whole tax issue will be extremely bad for ireland

mike65

I dont actually think Ireland is neutral in any meaningful sense, but poeple here still cling onto the notion (often for the wrong reasons i.e. anti-Brit/US).

Mike.

Boston

We are neutral, in the meaningful sense that our constitution says we are. People cling on to it because that there right, and who are you to say their wrong.
you cant just case aside the opinion of hundreads of thousands of irish people, just because you dont think were 100% neutral.

we will enver be 100% neutral, we depend to much on foreigners

azezil

In answer to the question, yes i am in favour of enlargement.

On a side note, What critaria must be met by countries wishing to join the EU?

mike65

Boston, the constitution can say one thing but practical reality can mean another, after all no-one can belive we're politically neutral. As you say yourself, we relie on foreign investment which implies a certain need to "play the game".

I think the main criteria is a free market, democratic system, ie they have to be just like us!

Mike.

yellum

All countries are equal in Europe says the Eu, but some are more equal than others says the Nice Treaty.

I'm for enlargement though.

The Corinthian

Enlargment? Sure, but let's not get carried away geographically - I mean, is Cyprus (mooted as a future member) in Europe?

Sand

Im in favour of enlargement but not until *serious* reform of the "European project" has occured. Enlargement will only make it more difficult to reform. Itll be difficult enough with the British involved who seem to have a knee-jerk dislike of anything with the EU involved - or at least their tabloids do.

Victor

The Amsterdam Treaty allows 5 more countries to join before the rules require renogiating. Enlargement is dependant on the Nice Treaty on a political basis only. There is an element of other countries going back on what they signed up to at Amsterdam.

The suggestion after the failure of the Treaty, that there be improved democracy within the EU has not progressed.

That said, I would like to see the EU expand by about 10 countries in the next 10 years, probably with Hungary and the Czech Republic as the first to join. I think Cyprus should be allowed join, subject to North / South agreement.