Food, fuel and treaty woes
While the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen had to endure pats of sympathy on his back, and arms and elbows, like someone who's had a rather embarrassing accident, the pressure is on the Czechs.
The Irish PM has to report back in October, but the Slovenian presidency stressed that this wasn't a deadline to "fix" the situation. This may just be kind words, and indeed the actual words that will be released from the summit have not yet been agreed in full.
While the Czech PM, Mirek Topolanek, said that his country wouldn't put the brakes on the ratification process he also told the other leaders there was a great deal of suspicion of the EU in his country. Despite his promise to carry on, he also said "I am not going to force MPs to back Lisbon and I wouldn't bet 100 crowns (about three pounds) on a Czech "yes". He said there was a lot he didn't agree with in Lisbon, but he had linked his political career to it. He said there were eight solutions on the table: only one of them was suspension of ratification. He said the Irish No had the same value as the French and Dutch Nos, but "we are three years old, and three more tired".
After the leaders' dinner the President of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, in as crisp a form as I've seen him, hit back. He said that it was "completely inconceivable" that a government would sign and not move towards ratification. He said all governments had an "obligation" to carry on - they had signed up to the treaty, and "not for fun".
He'd already done a good job trying to make this summit about oil and food prices, not the Irish No. I suspect many European newspapers will go with this line.
President Barroso has announced an emergency package to help fishermen, 200 million euros more for an emergency food distribution programme and a fund to help farmers in the developing world. But he insisted that the real way forward was less reliance on oil, and said that investing in renewables, which once seemed "exotic", now makes economic sense. He added there was "no quick fix, no magic solution."
The same might be said about the Lisbon Treaty. We only have a hint so far of the differing views: President Sarkozy said that the process of letting new countries join the EU was "suspended". The Slovenian presidency said it wasn't.
The Irish PM didn't hold a news conference and so far no word has leaked out, at least in my direction, of his description of his plight.
I’m Mark Mardell, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's North America editor. These are my reflections on American politics, some thoughts on being a Brit living in the USA, and who knows what else? My 
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