Of all the elements creatively transforming our old Continent today, none is more dramatic than the truly continental scale enlargement now at hand. This is the first time in millennia when Europe is uniting around common values, not at the point of a sword or from the barrel of a gun, but by the free will of free and sovereign peoples. What an extraordinary moment of reconciliation and history. The picture is now clear. From yesterday ten states, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta, are ready. The question is, are the 15 member states or the Irish ready? The time to bring closure to this historic moment has come.