France to hold referendum on EU constitution

France will hold a referendum on the European Union constitution next year, President Jacques Chirac said yesterday, ending months of uncertainty about whether he would stick to a 2002 pledge to consult the people.

France joins Britain, Spain and several other EU states opting to put the constitution to a referendum. The constitution, intended to make the EU run smoothly after its enlargement to 25 states, needs the backing of all members.

Opinion polls show a majority of French people back the constitution, but a referendum could still be a risky for Mr Chirac because of the French people's tendency to see referendums as a way to punish the government.

"The French people are concerned directly and will therefore be consulted directly - and so there will be a referendum, which will be held in any event next year," Mr Chirac said in a television interview.

"It will be in the second half of the year," he said in the president's annual interview on Bastille Day, which commemorates the French Revolution of 1789.

Mr Chirac's alternative option was to call a joint session of parliament to ratify the constitution, which the bloc's leaders approved last month and faces a two-year ratification process.

He pledged during his 2002 re-election campaign to consult the people directly, but he had kept his options open for fear the vote could turn into a protest against his conservative government's unpopular economic and welfare reforms.

If any of the EU's member states does not ratify the constitution, there could be a new vote or the treaty would need negotiating. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to face an uphill battle to win a "yes" vote.

An opinion poll in June showed two-thirds of French people backed the idea of an EU constitution.

But the late President Francois Mitterrand ran into problems when he called a referendum in 1992 on the Maastricht treaty on European economic and monetary union, judging the vote an easy win. The treaty was backed by only a thin majority.

Last month, voters punished Mr Chirac's ruling conservatives in EU parliament elections over high unemployment and painful cost-cutting reforms. They also gave the government a drubbing in regional elections in March.