Ireland will not be forgiven by countries hoping to join the EU if it rejects the Nice Treaty for a second time, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions claimed yesterday.
Calling on workers and their families to vote Yes in the forthcoming referendum, it said that the alternative was to allow the "Americanisation of Europe".
This was not intended to be anti-American, the ICTU general secretary, Mr David Begg, told a press conference.
Nevertheless, there was a conservative strain to politics in the United States which valued private wealth and individualism at the expense of social solidarity and equality. "It is that value system which is in the ascent at the present time and which aggressively seeks to universalise itself through the medium of globalisation," he said.
"The awesome political, economic and military power of the United States needs to be balanced by a Europe securely located in the values of (Jean) Monnet and (Jacques) Delors. The contrast between the continents is most starkly exemplified by attitudes to war with Iraq."
Trade union leaders from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, three of the countries in line for accession to the EU, attended the press conference to support the call for a Yes vote.
Mr Andrej Adamczyck, of the Solidarity union in Poland, said people there had been "surprised and astonished" at Ireland's rejection of Nice in the previous referendum. A second No vote, he said, would "lead to some loss of popularity for Ireland and a loss of credibility for Ireland as a reliable (EU) member working in solidarity with other European nations".
Mr Adamczyck, Ms Erika Koller, of the LIGA union in Hungary, and Ms Hana Malkova, of CMKOS in the Czech Republic. said suggestions that Ireland could expect large-scale immigration from those countries if they joined the EU were unfounded.
Ms Malkova said that the Czech people were disinclined to move, even within their own country, in search of employment.
Mr Begg said that at least 10 studies had been carried out, half of which looked at migration flows when the EU expanded in the past, as well as experience in the US. The other half were based on surveys of the intentions of people in the accession countries.
While Germany, Austria, the United States, Canada and Australia were popular destinations of would-be migrants, Ireland "does not even feature", he said.
Regarding the political representation Ireland would have post-Nice, if anyone had cause for complaint, it was the larger countries. "After Nice, Irish ministers would still have five times more votes than their German counterparts in proportion to population at council. In the parliament, we would have three times more MEPs per head than the Germans."
Even if Nice was rejected a second time, the EU would find an "alternative route" and would not stop enlargement. "If we do end up marginalised as a result of rejecting the treaty, it is clear that, as a matter of practical politics, it will be difficult for any Irish government to win allies for any case we might wish to fight."
