France warned Friday that Europe must stop accepting new members until it solves a political crisis triggered by Ireland’s rejection of the bloc’s reform treaty last week.

EU leaders, meeting for two days of talks, also grappled with skyrocketing food and fuel prices, and the European Commission said it would not stop governments from slashing excise tax on fuel or taxing windfall oil company profits.

Croatia, Turkey and Macedonia hope to join the 27-nation bloc, which has urged them to make wide democratic and economic changes before they could become part of Europe’s exclusive club.

“Without the Treaty of Lisbon there won’t be any enlargement,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters. “You can’t say no to reforms and yes to enlargement ... It’s nothing against Croatia.”

Irish voters last week refused to ratify the EU treaty, which aimed to overhaul the way Europe is governed and bolster its role on the world stage. Ireland was the only country to put the document to a public vote and its rejection has stopped EU reform in its tracks.

All EU countries must approve the treaty for it to go into effect. Britain became the 19th country to do so on Wednesday.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen must return to EU leaders next October with some ideas of how Ireland could go forward. He has refused to rule out a rerun of the referendum and asked other governments to give him time to work out possible solutions to the crisis.

EU nations are facing more immediate problems as shoppers complain of more costly food and fuel while truck drivers and fishermen say high oil prices are ruining their livelihoods.

Inflation in euro currency nations is running at a 16-year high, eating into Europeans’ spending power and the region’s economic growth.

The European Union’s executive said it would not stop European governments from slashing excise tax on fuel or taxing windfall energy profits.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Europe had to offer real help to people suffering the worst of higher grocery and gas pump prices, warning that this was creating “a new kind of poverty.”

He said the EU would increase food aid for the poor, boosting an existing $464 million fund to $774 million and offer money to retire more fishing vessels. The EU would also urge more openness about oil stocks to cool speculation and would try to talk to oil producers about improving and expanding supplies.

Barroso repeated that governments could give temporary and targeted subsidies to people hurt by the current price squeeze.

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Associated Press Writers Paul Ames, Jan Sliva, Constant Brand and Barbara Schaeder in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this story.