Britain expects Ireland to vote in favour of the Nice treaty at a referendum this weekend, a British minister said this morning.
"We are not planning for failure of that referendum," British secretary of state for Trade Ms Patricia Hewitt said, pointing to efforts by the Government to sell the treaty ahead of Saturday's vote.
Ms Hewitt said that Ireland had already benefited greatly from membership of the EU and "stands to benefit even more with the enlargement."
She told a meeting of the British-Polish Chamber of Commerce the EU's planned enlargement to 10 new countries in 2004 would "transform the EU into by far the biggest single market in the world with 500 million consumers, well beyond the United States."
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Meanwhile, a former Polish prime minister and two former foreign ministers signed a letter published in today's
Irish Times
asking the Irish people to vote in favour of the Nice treaty.
"We take it as a compliment to be known as 'the Irish of the East'," the letter, signed by 23 leading Poles, including artists, academics, business figures and farmers, said. It called for a Yes vote as a "great gesture of European solidarity."
"All of us admire Ireland and its achievements. We want to repeat your extraordinary success. But to do so we need your help."
Yesterday Danish Prime Minister Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU presidency, said a No vote would create "an unpredictable and unprecedented crisis" in the bloc.