The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will use a Paris summit next weekend to increase pressure on Ireland’s prime minister to find a way out of the impasse created by his country’s rejection of the Lisbon treaty, aimed at re-organising the European Union.

Brian Cowen, the Irish leader, may want to keep a low profile at a weekend of French festivities starting on July 13 when he will again face the ire of EU leaders over Ireland’s no vote on the treaty.

France assumed the presidency of the EU for six months last Tuesday and Sarkozy is to travel to Dublin on July 21 to ram home the point in talks with the taoiseach.

The French strategy appears to be aimed at isolating Ireland, the only country so far to have rejected the treaty, a scaled-down version of the EU constitution rejected by France and Holland in 2005. It calls for an EU president and foreign minister and more decisions by majority votes.

Speaking in Paris last week, Sarkozy made it clear there would be no reworking of the document simply because it had been turned down by Ireland. EU leaders had struggled for more than a year to redraft the text after the French and Dutch referendum no verdicts.

“There will be no treaty part III,” he said, indicating that the Irish would be expected to hold another referendum or show agreement through a parliamentary vote.

“If the perspective of a second vote in Ireland has been raised it is because it has happened before,” Sarkozy told journalists, referring to Ireland’s second referendum on the Nice treaty in 2002. “We need some kind of vote to get out of the situation – in parliament or in a referendum, I don’t know. But when democratic society says ‘no’, you need a democratic solution.”

Last week Cyprus became the latest country to ratify the document. The Dutch were expected to follow suit this week. France and Britain have already given their approval. However, ratification is stalled in the Czech Republic while its highest court examines whether it is constitutional.

Vaclav Klaus, the Czech president, has threatened to block the treaty pending the court’s verdict. He recently hit out at French efforts to put the treaty back on track and ignore Irish public opinion.

“I expect a lot of pressure to create a European Union à la France,” he said. “Our view is different and we must make an effort to ensure the EU does not develop in the way France and the rejected Lisbon treaty are pushing for.”

A recent opinion poll showed support for the EU has reached its lowest level in Britain since 1983. Of those polled 32% thought the UK’s membership of the EU was a bad thing, compared with 30% who thought it was beneficial.

LONG ROAD

Eighteen of the 27 European Union member states, including Britain, have ratified the Lisbon treaty.

Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands are expected to push it through – with Poland, the Czech Republic and Ireland still posing a headache for Brussels.

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