There is no "Plan B" in the event of a second Irish rejection of Nice, the European Commissioner for Enlargement has said. Taking questions in the European Parliament, Mr Gunther Verheugen refused to speculate about alternatives in the "hypothetical case" that the treaty was defeated again.
He said it was the unanimous opinion of the member-states and the Commission that, "We should not interfere in the opinion-forming process in Ireland, with statements about what we would do if the referendum again produced a majority No."
He continued: "There is no 'Plan B', and it really is forbidden to put forward such thoughts. It is really very clear: if I were to say here that the Commission is considering an alternative or that it has an alternative, then the next thing that would happen would be that the Irish voters would ask, 'What is this alternative like? We would like to know it, and then we wouldn't have to ratify Nice'. If we say there is an alternative, then we ensure that the treaty will not be ratified at all."
He was challenged by the Green MEP for Dublin, Ms Patricia McKenna, who accused him of trying to "keep the Irish people in the dark". "The strategy here is to pretend that there is no alternative and to try to force the Irish people into saying Yes," she said.
Anti-Nice campaigners were challenged by a Fianna Fáil MEP, Mr Brian Crowley, who said in a statement they were "very disingenuous" in claiming to favour EU enlargement while opposing the Nice Treaty. "Justin Barrett, Anthony Coughlan, Sinn Féin and the Greens should tell us what will the economic benefits be for Ireland in voting No to the Nice Treaty. The irony is that more markets for Irish exports means more jobs being created in Ireland," Mr Crowley said.
The Green MEP for Leinster, Ms Nuala Ahern, while expressing her opposition to the treaty, said some anti-Nice campaigners had been engaged in a "despicable" campaign, highlighting fears about immigration, and she wanted to "completely disassociate" herself from it.