The preliminary results announced by the Irish authorities showed that some 63 percent of those said "Yes" to the treaty while 37 percent voted against it, a stunning shift from a "No" vote of last year on the treaty, which mainly concerns the streamlining of the EU institutions for better and more efficient running in an enlarged body. The results removed a major obstacle threatening to derail scheduled EU enlargement.

Before the Saturday voting, Ireland, the only EU member state which had not ratified it, became the focus of EU attention because a second "No" to the treaty would probably jeopardize Europe's integration and enlargement process.

The "Yes" result, long expected and hoped for by the EU leadersand all of the candidate countries in central and eastern Europe waiting to join the bloc, came just in time as a sign of relief for many. And it has strategic importance to the future of the EU both economically and politically.

First, the EU is standing at an epoch-making era. To unify Europe through peaceful means has been a dream for scores of generations of Europeans and now it appears on the horizon. Although the EU had been enlarged four times in the past 30 years,the impending enlargement is the largest of its kind in its history and by far the most important one.

With the entry of more than ten countries with such diverse cultural traditions and political and economic differences, the EUwould cast its influence to most of the central and eastern Europe.This enlargement would mean too much for its strategic goals.

Europeans have never felt so strong a desire for unification and prosperity as now. Economic integration in the past decades has paved the way for and justified their efforts towards a stronger Europe on the international arena.

Secondly, the current enlargement process is at its critical stage. Since March 1998, the EU opened access negotiations with most of the current aspirant countries on 31 categories ranging from fisheries to foreign policies and security. Now most of the negotiation chapters have been concluded.

As many as 10 countries will be invited to join at the Copenhagen summit this December and become full EU members in 2004if things go as scheduled. The Irish rejection to the treaty for asecond time would make much of the previous efforts fruitless and the enlargement scenario would be redesigned, a consequence unacceptable for both the EU and candidate countries knocking at its door.

Thirdly, the treaty's political implications are as important as, if not more important than, its economic weight. Common foreign and security policy is something the EU has been striving to achieve for decades. Presently, it is quickening its pace for this goal. The approval of the treaty by the Irish voters would undoubtedly be conducive to the EU's coordination on and integration in this aspect, helping make the EU one of the key cornerstones in a multipolar world.

Therefore, the Nice Treaty, which got the last "green light" asPresident of the European Commission Romano Prodi put it, constitutes a hard legal basis for the enlargement of the EU and promises bright prospects for its future both economically and politically.

This, however, does not mean in any sense that it would remove all the obstacles looming ahead for the EU.

True and complete unification would require total agreement on all the key issues Europeans concern. Problems created by diversity in culture, legal system, economic mechanism as well as national way of thinking within an enlarged EU would surely arise,but this would by no means dwarf the potential significance of thetreaty for an unprecedented bigger Europe.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2002)