France:French president Nicolas Sarkozy has told senior MEPs that referendums on the EU reform treaty were likely to be lost and could plunge Europe "into a long crisis".
At a private meeting with the leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament this week, Mr Sarkozy gave a blunt assessment of the danger of holding referendums to ratify EU treaties.
"A No could happen everywhere. There is a cleavage between the populations and the governments the French referendum was a catastrophe. But France was only ahead of other nations with its referendum. The French were not different," said Mr Sarkozy, according to a transcript published by an MEP present at the meeting.
Eurosceptic Jens Peter Bonde published Mr Sarkozy's comments at the "behind closed doors" meeting on his blog.
Fianna Fáil MEP Liam Aylward insisted last night that the referendum in Ireland on the treaty could be won. "If the Yes campaign is highly professional and visible selling the core message of the benefits of Irish membership of the EU, then the referendum can be won - but it must be very professional," he said.
Meanwhile a blog, Inside Brussels, written by a veteran correspondent for French daily Libération, has reported that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has been given an account of Mr Sarkozy's opposition to Turkey joining the EU. The blog suggests Mr Ahern, on September 21st, and two weeks later Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, were both subjected to a "veritable anti-Muslim diatribe" by the French leader.
Sources cited by the blog said Mr Sarkozy spoke in "very hard, very informal and altogether shocking" language about the "too great a number of Muslims in Europe". He also evoked the idea of a "clash of civilisations" between the West and the Muslim world.
The blog notes that neither Mr Ahern nor his Swedish counterpart were prepared for the "rambling" speech. Both leaders were expecting to discuss the rather less controversial issue of preparation for the EU leaders' summit in October.