DUBLIN, Oct 20: Ireland formally announced on Sunday that it had adopted a treaty on EU enlargement eastwards and southwards, to the relief of European leaders who had feared a second rejection by Irish voters would derail the historic push.

In a make-or-break referendum, almost 63 percent of voters cast their ballots in favour of the Nice Treaty, paving the way for 10 candidate countries from eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to join the European Union in 2004.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern hailed the result, which reversed a No vote by Ireland in a referendum last year.

“I warmly welcome this extremely important decision of the Irish people. We can now ratify the treaty of Nice and the truly historic enlargement of the European Union can go ahead,” he said.

“Today is an historic day in our relationship with our sister states in Europe,” he added.

“This decision shows above all that as a nation we want to welcome the peoples of the applicant countries into the union with open hearts as well as open minds.”

Ireland, one of the smallest EU member states with 3.9 million people, shocked the rest of Europe in June 2001 when it rejected the Nice treaty — a prerequisite for the European Union’s expansion — in a first referendum by a vote of 54 percent.

The treaty — a complicated set of reforms to EU decision-making — has to be ratified by all 15 EU member states by the end of this year, so a second Irish rebuff would have stalled enlargement and triggered a political crisis within the bloc.

Irish Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney said the Yes vote was a “defining moment for Ireland and for Europe as a whole”.

“The people have voted to remove the last vestiges of the Iron Curtain and the division of Europe.

“Today, Ireland had played a lead role in Europe, and we have all won,” she said.

EU leaders and candidate countries in eastern Europe and the Mediterranean breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ireland is giving a green light to enlargement,” said a delighted European Commission President Romano Prodi, who had repeatedly warned that Brussels had no “plan B” if the treaty was defeated in Ireland for a second time.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana welcomed the “momentous” Irish vote.

“We stand on the threshold of a new Europe. The road which has brought us here has not been easy. It has required a firm belief in a new Europe, united by common values and a common purpose.”

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the Nice treaty “was, and is, necessary for enlargement to take place smoothly by 2004.

“An early enlargement is essential for European stability, security, peace and prosperity.”

Straw added: “Important and difficult negotiations lie ahead between now and the Copenhagen European summit in December, but we stand on the edge of an historic moment.

“It is essential that we all keep our eyes on the prize of a united Europe.”

French President Jacques Chirac welcomed the vote as presenting “a historic chance” for Europe.

Last year’s Irish referendum setback was blamed on a lacklustre campaign by Ahern’s government, which took a Yes vote for granted, and on a feeble turnout of just 34 percent of the electorate.

This time a turnout of over 48 percent, according to RTE, was attributed by observers to a more vigorous and well-financed campaign spearheaded by Ireland’s major political parties, business organizations, labour unions and farm groups.

There was also relief from EU candidate states who have been knocking at the door of the wealthy EU bloc since the collapse of the Iron Curtain more than a decade ago.

“Irish voters have passed the test of responsibility well. They have understood that the future of the European Union and the future of Europe was hinging on them,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs told AFP.

“We will be grateful to the Irish because on the European Union bench, they were willing to move over a bit to leave room for the 10 candidate countries,” said a government spokesman in Poland, the biggest candidate state.

Ireland was the only EU member where the Nice treaty was subject to a constitutional referendum.

The No side — an odd mix of the arch-conservatives, Socialists, Greens and the nationalist Sinn Fein — depicted the Nice Treaty as a threat to Irish jobs and the country’s jealously-held policy of neutrality.

Many No voters also feared that enlargement would trigger an influx of eastern Europeans into Ireland, which has become an economic dynamo since it joined the EU almost three decades ago.

Ten countries are on track to join the EU in the first half of 2004: the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

It is the most ambitious expansion project by the EU, which has admitted new members four times in the past, including Britain, Denmark and Ireland in 1973, Greece in 1981, Portugal and Spain in 1986 and Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995.

—AFP