EU leaders today vowed to continue with the eastward expansion of the union despite Ireland’s rejection of the Nice treaty.
"After the Irish referendum, it is even more important to send a clear signal to the candidate countries that enlargement is irreversible," said Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed: "It is important that the message at Gothenburg be: The enlargement process will continue without delay."
Twelve countries are currently in negotiations to join the EU over the next decade, with Turkey a possible 13th if it meets EU criteria.
As the Taoiseach Mr Ahern tried to reassure his EU counterparts and said: "I want to make it absolutely clear that...the No vote should not be interpreted as a vote against enlargement."
He said Ireland had to satisfy the issues behind the referendum rejection of the treaty. He said these were the State’s neutrality, the EU model and the EU's future.
But EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg last Monday vowed there would be no new negotiation of the Nice treaty.
And European Parliament President Ms Nicole Fontaine today warned against concessions to the Irish, particularly "exit clauses...which would completely distort the substance of the treaty and the mutual undertakings given at Nice."
"The Irish referendum provides an urgent incentive to breath some fresh air into representative democracy by practicing it at a level closer to our citizens," she said in a statement.
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said not only should the enlargement process continue, but it was a "realistic objective" for the most advanced candidate countries to be ready to vote in 2004 European elections.
The date for the completion of enlargement also created disagreement as France and Germany blocked an agreement among EU leaders, a Swedish EU presidency source said.
Germany and France said they were "not keen on the date of late 2002" for ending the talks with the most advanced of countries in membership negotiations, the source said, adding current EU president Sweden and a majority of EU members supported that date.
The source said Cyprus, Slovenia, Estonia and Hungary were likely to be the first candidate countries to complete their accession talks and be ready to join the EU.
A diplomatic source said France and Germany had the backing of Belgium and Greece.
Swedish Foreign Minister Ms Anna Lindh told a press conference the heads of state and government had not agreed, at the session on enlargement, on a firm timetable for the final phase of the accession negotiations, but would probably do so on Saturday.
The Swedish presidency had initially hoped to set target dates for concluding negotiations with the first accession candidates, but diplomats said this morning it was clear not all countries wanted fixed dates.
AFP