The Minister for Foreign Affairs has said that the "stand-off" caused by the rejection of the Nice Treaty must be resolved so that enlargement of the EU can proceed. Brian Cowen was speaking after meeting Ambassadors from some of the applicant countries at Iveagh House in Dublin.
One of the ambassadors, Petr Kolar from the Czech Republic, said that he accepted the Irish people still favoured enlargement, but that the referendum result had been rather shocking. He said he would now keep his fingers crossed and hope the difficulty could be resolved. Mr Cowen said that the people's decision must be respected but there was nothing to stop an important issue being put to the people more than once.
This afternoon, Mr Cowen will meet the Slovenian Foreign Minister. Today's talks follow a meeting in Luxembourg yesterday with Foreign Ministers from the other eleven applicant countries.
