Brussels, 29/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - Romano Prodi acknowledged on Saturday that the Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty might hold back enlargement, saying that the Commission unanimously agreed the scheduled date should be maintained and confirmed at the Copenhagen Summit, but that it was important to prepare for other eventualities, such as a negative vote in the second Irish referendum. He stressed in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais that enlargement was the Commission's number one priority. Last Wednesday, at the final weekly meeting of the College before the summer break, Commissioners discussed the danger of enlargement being delayed. In the first referendum organised in June 2001 the Irish rejected the Nice Treaty. A second referendum is being organised on the same issue for October of this year. The ratification of the Nice Treaty by all Member States is needed if enlargement is to go ahead under the scheduled terms and timeline.