Nicolas Sarkozy might as well spend the weekend listening to his wife's new album, but this has nothing to do with her feelings for him or his for her. He just needs to practise listening.

The reason is a pledge that the French President has made, broken and reluctantly remade to listen to the Irish people when he visits Dublin today to try to resolve Europe's quandary over the foundering treaty of Lisbon.

Since Ireland's “no” vote in last month's referendum, European leaders have cast about in vain for a way to ignore the democratically expressed wishes of the Irish without appearing to do so. The dilemma has been most acute for Mr Sarkozy because he hoped to use the EU's rotating presidency to relaunch Europe with streamlined decision-making, more visible leaders and a grandiose Charter of Fundamental Rights, codified in a fully ratified Lisbon treaty.

His immediate reaction when Ireland appeared to scupper this plan was to insist that it vote again. The following week, after stern words from his advisers, he announced today's “listening” visit and told an EU summit that Ireland's leaders could have until October to consult their citizens and report back to Brussels. Many doubted that his ultimate goal - a second referendum with a “yes” result - had changed. Sure enough, this week he told his party faithful at a closed meeting in Paris that Ireland would, indeed, have to vote again. Finally, his staff were deployed again to say that his words had been taken out of context and that he was “not going to Ireland to tell them what to do”.

It is vital that Mr Sarkozy sticks to this last strategy, because even at its most conciliatory the Elysée Palace has betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of the import of Ireland's “no”. It is not for any other EU member to give Dublin a deadline by which to suggest a way out of this mess, any more than to require Ireland to vote again.

The only thing to be said in Mr Sarkozy's favour in this regard is that Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the Union's External Relations Commissioner, clings to this misunderstanding even more blindly. She said of the Irish yesterday: “It's up to them to make a decision.” Even the most ardent integrationist must see that she has this the wrong way round. The Irish have made their decision. It is up to the EU to respond.

Mr Sarkozy will be on the ground in Dublin for all of six hours. He cannot be expected to stay silent throughout, and is likely to offer a package of inducements designed to make a second referendum seem worthwhile. These could include guarantees on Ireland's neutrality and tax and abortion policies, on which “no” voters feared European meddling, and a promise that Ireland would retain a commissioner in Brussels.

Ireland may or may not strike a deal. If not, Mr Sarkozy is said to have no Plan C. He needs one. He has claimed publicly that since the Treaty of Nice was framed for a maximum of 26 member states, further expansion is impossible without Lisbon. Privately, the Elysée admits that this is not true, even if other mechanisms for expansion would be messier. These include a brand new treaty shorn of Lisbon's non-essentials, a series of amendments to the forthcoming Croatian accession treaty, or even a “two-speed” Europe. Messy, indeed, and vastly preferable to the streamlined steamrollering of democracy.