THE French government will make a statement to parliament on European economic and monetary union (EMU) on February 21st, to be followed by a debate, parliamentary officials said yesterday.

The National Assembly debate will take place a month, before an inter governmental conference on reform of the European Union's institutions opens in Turin, Italy.

Amid growing criticism in France of the Maastricht treaty conditions for a single EU currency in 1999, the government's decision to hold a parliamentary debate appeared to be an attempt to clear the air and reaffirm the support of a majority of politicians for VMU, political sources said.