Iva welcomes Irish 'yes' vote

The Iva Movement yesterday thanked the Irish people for giving the go ahead to the ratification of the Nice Treaty and urged the Maltese to realise that truth ultimately wins over fiction.

Speaking at the university yesterday, Iva officials stressed the importance of the electorate deciding between sound and partisan arguments.

Now that another obstacle had been overcome, it was up to the Maltese to decide through a referendum on membership, they said.

The Iva movement said there were a lot of similarities between those opposing membership in Malta and in Ireland as both were basing their campaign on negative arguments and fear.

The pro-EU movement said the Irish had this time understood the meaning of the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the importance of enlargement.

"We hope that in Malta we would be able to overcome egoism the same way the Irish did and instead we will start looking at the national rather than the personal interests". That was why it was important to have factual and objective information, Iva said.

It was ironic though that those objecting to the Nice Treaty were mainly driven by egoism and were mainly happy as EU members. A number of those who did not want to ratify the Nice Treaty were motivated by the fear that the addition of 10 new member states would somewhat dent the benefits Ireland had enjoyed from membership.

Opting out of membership would mean loss of jobs, funds, rights, standards, democracy, peace, stability and investment, Iva warned.

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin congratulated the Confederation of Trade Unions in Ireland on the result of the referendum.

The UHM noted it seemed that those opposing membership in Malta would increase the dosage of incorrect information to back their arguments.