FRENCH PRESIDENCY:THE POLITICAL imperative of EU enlargement into the Balkans would be impossible within the confines of the Nice Treaty, French president Nicolas Sarkozy told journalists attending the Brussels summit.
Unless Lisbon was ratified, enlargement was on hold, he said, insisting that all member states should recognise their responsibilities.
"For enlargement we need Lisbon. Without Lisbon, we go back to Nice," he warned, stressing the importance to the peace of the region of the prospect of membership for Croatia, Serbia and their neighbours.
"The question of enlargement is blocked de jure or de facto," he said. Mr Sarkozy tried to narrow Ireland's options further by announcing that the leaders agreed that "renegotiation of the treaty is excluded", a point Taoiseach Brian Cowen would later take issue with, pointing to agreed summit conclusions that said no such thing.
Asked at a press briefing late on Thursday night after the leaders' dinner if Ireland would definitely have to vote again, Mr Sarkozy stalled, saying that "to ask the question, is to answer it", but he was not going to go any further "barely seven days after the vote".
Senior French sources have, however, made clear to journalists that the French believe there is no alternative.
Mr Sarkozy said he wanted to come to Ireland on July 11th after France assumes the EU presidency to hear the Government's perspective on the Lisbon vote and to meet others involved in the debate. France's role would be to try to bring the European family forward together as 27, he said.
He added yesterday that one of the reasons he would be going to Ireland was "precisely to discuss the relationship between Ireland's military neutrality and the union's defence politics," an area the French see as a priority of their presidency. He would not be drawn on whether the restoration of the right to a permanent commissioner would be an acceptable concession to Ireland, arguing that as the incoming presidency, he did not want to "take sides".
He said that leaders had heard a "frank" presentation of the campaign by Mr Cowen and that they agreed to wait until October to give Ireland time to come up with a "definitive solution". A senior French diplomatic source explained yesterday that Mr Sarkozy was under "no pressure, no obligation" to come up with specific proposals in October.
Mr Sarkozy also stressed the importance of settling the issue decisively ahead of next summer's European elections. Mr Sarkozy won a small, largely symbolic victory at the meeting in getting a commitment to a commission study of fiscal means of tackling the oil price surge. Mr Sarkozy insisted that action on the issue was critical to make the point that the EU's political crisis was not plunging it into "immobilisme".
"The best answer to the institutional crisis," he said, "is to show Europe is working."
The commission report, which will come back to leaders in October, will consider French proposals for a progressive reduction of VAT on fuel as prices rise. But Mr Sarkozy acknowledged he held little hope of persuading most states to back the proposal at that stage. He met the Czech and Swedish prime ministers yesterday morning for breakfast to work on co-ordinating their forthcoming presidencies.