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You may have missed it, but the Czech Senate voted this week to approve the EU Lisbon treaty. (Remember the Lisbon Treaty? It's the one that replaced the proposed EU constitution, the one to which the French and the Dutch said No.)

That leaves Ireland as the only one of the 27 member states still holding out. (Well, to be strictly accurate, both the Czech Republic and Poland still need presidential signatures for ratification, and those won't be forthcoming, it seems, until after the Irish have said Yes.)

So Ireland looks set for a Lisbon referendum. Again. They tried last year, but Irish voters said No thanks. And if you're wondering which bit of the answer No the EU doesn't understand, here's what the European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told me: "When we believe something, we should not give up. Of course we always have to respect democratic decisions, but I don't change my opinion just because there is a majority opinion that is different from mine."

You can hear him by clicking below.

(broadcast on The World Tonight, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4, 6 May 2009)

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