(DUBLIN) - Critics of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty plan to stage a series of protests against French President Nicolas Sarkozy when he visits Ireland next month, a spokesman for activists said Friday.

The Campaign Against the EU Constitution (CAEUC), an umbrella body grouping about 15 anti-treaty groups, is opposed to holding a second referendum in Ireland, which stunningly rejected the EU document in a public vote this month.

"There will be a big demonstration and a picket when Sarkozy arrives on July 11," CAEUC spokesman Michael Youlton told AFP.

He said CAEUC objected to a number of comments about the Irish referendum outcome made by Sarkozy and other EU politicians.

"We feel that democratically we decided something and we are going to be pressurised, if they get their way, to have a second referendum. Our point is No means NO. What part of No do they not understand?" Youlton said.

Ireland, the only EU state constitutionally obliged to hold a vote on the charter, rejected it by 53.4 percent in a June 12 referendum, plunging the bloc into crisis as the accord must be ratified by all 27 member states.

The CAEUC coalition includes the Communist Party, anti-war movement groups, Sinn Fein and other republican groups, the Socialist Party and a number of left-wing movements which played a prominent role in the anti-treaty campaign in the run-up to the Irish referendum.

Sarkozy, who takes on the bloc's rotating presidency from July 1, said he would visit Ireland for talks on July 11 with the aim of coming up with a way forward at the next EU summit in October.

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