French lower house adopts constitutional change needed for EU treaty
France's lower-house National Assembly on Tuesday adopted a bill to amend the country's 1958 constitution, the first step toward a national referendum later this year on the EU constitution.
The text had been approved by members of President Jacques Chirac's ruling centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the centrist Union for French Democracy (UDF) and the opposition Socialists. There were 450 votes in favour and 34 against.
The bill now has to go to the Senate. The text is expected to pass through later this month.
The two chambers are then scheduled to convene in a special session (in March) to approve the constitutional change. This is a necessary precondition before the EU text can pass into law in France.
The EU constitution will then be put to the people in a national referendum, probably in June.
Polls show that 65 percent of the French would vote in favour of the EU constitution, but Chirac fears that number could dip sharply if Turkish membership of the EU or the government's own popular standing enter the debate.
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