July 22, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 18, 1429

DUBLIN: French President Nicolas Sarkozy faced protests on Monday as he arrived in Dublin to discuss the way forward after Ireland’s shock rejection of a key European Union treaty.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside government offices where Sarkozy -- whose country took over the EU’s six-month rotating presidency this month — was to hold talks with Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen.

The French leader sparked outrage last week by reportedly suggesting that Ireland should vote again after its crushing rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in a June 12 referendum.

But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner sought to downplay the comments, reported by lawmakers who attended a meeting with Sarkozy.

“We are (travelling to Ireland) as the French presidency of the Union and not as ‘France, the giver of lessons’. We will listen to all sides,” Kouchner told Britain’s daily Times newspaper ahead of the meeting.

The Irish premier, in an opinion piece in the Irish Times to mark the visit, gave what commentators said was a message to Sarkozy to back off, and not push too hard for Ireland to take its next step after the stunning June 12 No vote.

“We need patience and understanding from our partners over the coming months as we complete that process,” Cowen wrote.

“I fully respect the verdict of the Irish people, and I have made that clear to my European colleagues. And I have made clear that I expect them to do likewise,” he said.

As Sarkozy arrived from Paris, a few hundred protestors rallied outside government offices, notably including farmers protesting against what they see as a sell-out on agricultural policy.

“Mr President, defend farmers and European food,” read one banner brandished by protestors, while six tractors were driven into the city centre to underline their point.

Ireland — the only EU state to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which has to be ratified by all countries in the bloc to take effect — rejected it with a stunning 53.4 per cent votes against last month.

EU leaders are set to discuss the crisis again at an October summit, and Sarkozy has set a deadline of the end of this year to overcome the impasse, ahead of elections next year to the European Parliament.

Eurosceptics in Ireland and elsewhere claim the Lisbon treaty is little more than a mildly-tweaked version of the previous EU constitution, torpedoed by French and Dutch voters in referendums in 2005.

Irish and French government officials have played down the likelihood of concrete developments arising from Monday’s meetings.

But a key leader of the Irish No vote, millionaire businessman Declan Ganley, used the visit to highlight his plans to field anti-Lisbon candidates across the EU in European Parliament elections next year.

Ganley, who says he supports a “strong, prosperous and democratically legitimate” Europe, said he will ask Sarkozy to “accept that the Irish people have rejected the Lisbon Treaty”.

Next June’s EU parliament elections should be turned into a “proxy referendum ... to make sure that the Lisbon Treaty is not dug up out of the grave that the Irish people have put it in,” he told BBC radio.

A spokeswoman for Sinn Fein, Irish political party to campaign against the treaty, echoed his views, saying : “There can’t be any re-run. A new treaty is required. He (Sarkozy) needs to listen to this.”—AFP