The Lisbon treaty is dead, but Europe’s political elite refuses to give it a decent burial. Suffering post-traumatic shock at the temerity of Irish voters who rejected the treaty on June 12, some of the EU’s more deluded prime ministers are insisting that the treaty is still alive, if not quite kicking. Like Monty Python’s deceased parrot, they insist that the treaty is merely resting, in this case until such time as we come to our senses, return to the polls and do “the right thing”.

Those voters who, like us, bought the independent Referendum Commission’s line that the Lisbon treaty would only come into effect if ratified by all the EU’s member states, are entitled to feel aggrieved at the pressure they are coming under to vote again. A referendum in which the only outcome permitted is the one desired by the government should really be called a rubberstampum.

Supporters of the Lisbon treaty persist with the claim that its ratification will make for a more democratic Europe. Thanks, but we already have a robust democracy. As is becoming increasingly clear, other European leaders are determined to ignore it. And the country most anxious to trample on our democratic decision is France. Nicolas Sarkozy, floating on a cloud of self-importance, has entirely missed the irony contained in his demand that “the Irish must hold a second vote”. It was France that effectively killed the original EU constitution when 55% of its voters rejected it in 2005.

After that poll there was no demand from Germany, Italy, Spain — and certainly not from Bertie Ahern — that French voters be sent back to the polling booths to “get it right”. Neither was there any suggestion that the French rejection would lead to a two-speed Europe; that the French people had turned their backs on the EU; that France might be ejected from the EU; nor that France, and France alone, come up with a solution to its No vote. Yet these are the claims, threats and pressures that this country has had to endure for the past five weeks.

Having punched above our weight in Brussels for a number of years, our politicians and civil servants believed they had a certain standing on the European stage. M Sarkozy’s pronouncements, alongside those of Bernard Kouchner, his foreign minister, should leave nobody in any doubt as to where we rank in the eyes of the Elysée Palace. We shouldn’t take this personally. Ireland is not the only country to have been “Sarkozyed” in recent weeks. Both Poland and the Czech Republic have also been subject to tirades from Paris for delaying ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

As president of the European Council until the end of the year, M Sarkozy may be no more than a six-month irritant. Much more worrying is the attitude adopted by Brian Cowen, who seems to have bought into the notion that Irish voters have committed a political crime and that the republic bears full responsibility for finding a solution to the so-called “Lisbon crisis”. Mr Cowen needs to be a lot tougher with his EU colleagues.

Prior to the referendum we pointed out that it would be unfair to punish this country if it rejected Lisbon, since we were the only country required to vote on the treaty. That we found ourselves in such a position can be put down to political cowardice at the highest level in the EU.

Following the rejection of the constitution, EU leaders made a small number of changes to the document, called it the Lisbon treaty, and decided not to put it to a vote. Had it not been for the Irish constitution, they would have got away with it. Now that we have called the EU’s bluff, the responsibility for the outcome lies with Brussels — not Ireland.

When Mr Cowen meets M Sarkozy tomorrow during his farcical “listening” tour, he must make it clear that it is the EU that needs to go back to the drawing board. M Sarkozy says he has no plan C. He needs to make one.

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