Dublin, 19/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - In an interview published in The Irish Times, Commissioner Chris Patten warned of the possible political consequences for Ireland if the Treaty of Nice were rejected for a second time by the country. "It will stop enlargement and some people, with whom I do not have any sympathy, will inevitably say that here is a country that has done well out of membership of the European Union over many years but is not prepared to extend those benefits to countries that have suffered from the division of Europe for 50 years." Mr Patten dismissed arguments by some anti-Nice campaigners that the EU was pursuing a path of militarisation, "Nobody can honestly look at Europe today at the proportion of GNP that is spent on defence and argue that we are seeing the Spartanising of Athens…What we are speaking about in the Petersburg tasks is something that is clearly within the tradition of Irish foreign policy".