EUROPEAN UNION: IRELAND'S YES VOTE FOR NICE TREATY REMOVES ONE OBSTACLE TO ENLARGEMENT.

62.89% of Irish people who turned out to vote on Sunday said Yes to the Treaty of Nice. The Yes camp won the day in all 42 electoral constituencies compared with only two in the first referendum on Nice in June 2001. Turnout was 48.45%, up by nearly a third from the vote last year. "The Irish have sent a warm signal to our friends in the East, Centre and South of Europe", said Bertie Ahern. The truly historic enlargement of the European Union can go ahead. (...) We want to welcome the people of the applicant countries into the European Union with open hearts as well as open minds."

"The Irish people have delivered an overwhelmingly positive vote. This result demonstrates that the only people in the EU to have been consulted have, after a period of reflection, given the clearest possible signal that Europe's rendezvous with history cannot be further delayed or postponed", said the President of the European Parliament, Liberal Irish MEP Pat Cox, for whom this referendum means "Yes to Europe, Yes to enlargement, and Yes to European reconciliation". And Hans-Gert Poettering, Chairman of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament said the result was also a boost for the enlargement negotiations and that the size of the Yes vote underlined this commitment to enlargement. Thanking the Fine Gael party and also its four MEPs for their "outstanding contribution to the referendum campaign", he said "this will give a great boost to confidence in Europe and the European project".

For his part, European Commission President Romano Prodi said in a statement released after the final results were in: "We can now get on with finalising preparations for enlargement of the European Union. We are closer to our goal, but not there yet".

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen - who, as current President of the European Council, is responsible for driving the enlargement process forward at two upcoming EU Summits, said the result was "very satisfactory", and that "the Irish people have taken an important decision. Not only for Ireland. But for the EU as a whole and not least for the enlargement". The results of the referendum "send a clear and positive signal to the Central and Eastern European countries that all EU countries take the enlargement seriously. The Treaty of Nice is the enlargement Treaty of the EU", said Mr Rasmussen. It paves the way for the European Council in Copenhagen in December to conclude the accession negotiations and welcome the first...