French:Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has said that she will ask the French public to vote again in 2009 on a new European Union constitution if she is elected.
Ms Royal, running neck and neck in polls with interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, said yesterday she wanted the EU to agree on a new treaty during the French presidency in the second half of 2008.
"I want the French people to be consulted once again in a referendum in 2009," she told reporters after a meeting with Luxembourg prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker. Ms Royal said a European constitution should add a declaration on workers' rights and public services. France voted against a proposed EU constitution in a 2005 referendum, throwing the bloc into a crisis from which it is still struggling to emerge.
Mr Sarkozy, Ms Royal's main opponent, has proposed negotiating a "mini-treaty" of articles from the former constitution, such as a long-term EU president and seeking parliamentary ratification rather than a referendum. - ( Reuters )