French President Nicolas Sarkozy is saying that Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty means that other states–Croatia and Turkey foremost among them–cannot join the European Union. “No Lisbon Treaty, no enlargement,” he declares. Slovenia, currently the EU’s presiding nation, disagrees. Why should the pesky Irish get in the way of others? They ask. Nobody in EU-land is quite sure how to proceed.

What a mess.

It just so happens that, as I write, Turkey are playing Croatia in the Euro 2008 soccer championship. Why not automatically integrate the winner–or perhaps loser–of the match into the EU? This would avoid the tricky issue of obtaining popular mandates. (The score is 0-0 at the moment).