Official French EU referendum campaign opens with two sides neck-and-neck

With two weeks to go before the vote, official campaigning for France's referendum on the EU's new constitution opens Monday as polls continue to show the two sides neck-and-neck.

Pre-election rules governing access to broadcast media kick in from midnight, which supporters of the constitutional treaty hope will provide a much-needed fillip to their cause.

Allocation of radio and television slots is based on performance at recent elections, and as the biggest parties support the constitution the "yes" campaign will have a roughly two-to-one advantage in air time.

In one of the most eagerly-watched campaigns of recent years, the French are preparing to vote on May 29 on whether to accept a reworking of the European Union's operating rules, designed to take account of the bloc's expansion to the post-communist east.

The constitution must be ratified by all 25 member states, and a rejection by so important a country as France would leave it dead in its tracks, triggering a period of confusion and paralysis inside the EU.

Rejection would also have profound political repercussions inside France, where the constitution is being pushed by President Jacques Chirac and his Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party as well as by the opposition Socialists and Greens.

However the "no" campaign has been helped by a mood of widespread public discontent, feeding on France's sluggish growth, 10.2 percent unemployment and a fear of new competition from the low-cost economies of central and eastern Europe.

The latest opinion poll, published Saturday, showed the "no" camp victorious with 54 percent of the vote -- a leap of four points on a similar poll 10 days previously. Of six other surveys since the start of May, three predicted a win for the "yes," two for the "no" and one a dead heat.

Source: EUbusiness