Silly voters...

Last month the citizens of Ireland voted to reject the Lisbon Treaty. This is a problem for the European Union since the Lisbon Treaty was basically the EU's second attempt at drawing up a constitution. Voters in several countries had rejected the earlier attempt as well.

Politicians in the EU say that a constitution will allow them to have common foreign policies, better economic cooperation and will allow the EU to expand beyond its current 27-member size, so Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty is a real problem for them.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, has weighed in on the Lisbon Treaty conundrum. His solution? Tell Ireland to vote again.

Yes, Sarkozy feels that 53% of Ireland's voters made a mistake in rejecting Lisbon, so they should be given a chance to go back to the polls and get it right this time. As you might expect, the Irish aren't taking Sarkozy's suggestion well, saying that he is trying to bully them into supporting a treaty that is not in Ireland's best interests.

Opponents to the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution claim that it takes too much decision-making power from their national governments and concentrates it in Brussels (the EU capital), and that the EU bureaucracy is already far too large and unwieldy.

Voters can be so troublesome sometimes...