I f at first you don't succeed, try again. That appears to have been the thinking of Irish politicians in their battle to secure public endorsement of the Nice Treaty, which provides the ground rules for expanding the European Union. Last weekend, a second ballot won popular support. Ireland's change of heart obliges EU member states to come up with the plans that make expansion possible. As always, the key sticking point is money.
EU leaders signed the Nice Treaty, which established a procedure for taking on new members in December 2000, and all the member governments then endorsed the document -- except Ireland. The Dublin government was required to put the treaty to a popular vote, and in a referendum on June 7, 2001, the Irish turned down the treaty 54 to 46 percent; worse, turnout was a miserable 35 percent. That was more than an embarrassment to Irish Prime Minister Bernie Ahern. If each country did not endorse the treaty by yearend, the treaty would lapse and EU expansion could not proceed.
Mr. Ahern promptly scheduled another vote, and this time wasted no effort in convincing Irish voters of the benefits of increasing EU membership. His government spent millions of euros in the campaign and missed no opportunity to court the "yes" vote. It worked. Turnout in the second referendum climbed to 49.47 percent.