FRANCE:France was set yesterday to become the fifth EU country to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, with a final vote scheduled to take place in the Senate either last night or this morning, writes Lara Marlowein Paris
The National Assembly approved the Treaty yesterday afternoon by a vote of 336 for, 52 against and 22 abstentions.
Three years ago, France was riveted by an impassioned debate on the Constitutional Treaty, which was defeated by 55 per cent of voters in a referendum on May 29th, 2005.
The debate this week however received little media coverage and left the French public indifferent. There was only one French reporter in the gallery reserved for print media when the vote was held yesterday.
During his election campaign last year, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced his intention to seek a "mini-treaty" and have it ratified by parliament. Ironically, it was Mr Sarkozy who needled then President Jacques Chirac into holding a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty.
Virtually no one in the French media remembered that this week, but the communist deputy Alain Bocquet quoted Mr Sarkozy's May 9th, 2004 speech at a joint meeting of the National Assembly and Senate at Versailles on Monday.
"Sovereignty is the people," Mr Sarkozy had said. "At every great step in the European integration process, we must consult the people. Otherwise we will cut ourselves off from the people."
This week's ratification was a four-step process. First an article in the constitution referring to the Constitutional Treaty had to be changed at Versailles. Article 88-1 of the French constitution now says that France "may participate in the European Union in the conditions foreseen by the Treaty of Lisbon".
The government then approved the Lisbon Treaty in its weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The National Assembly held a debate between 9.30pm and 1.30am during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, followed by yesterday's vote and a further debate and vote last night and possibly this morning in the Senate.
The National Assembly debate focused more on the manner of the ratification than the substance of the treaty. Communists and socialists accused Mr Sarkozy of rushing the treaty through and depriving the French of participation in an important decision by scheduling the debate late at night.
"What kind of way of doing things is it to change the constitution on Monday, examine the text in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday morning and submit it to national representatives the same evening?" the communist deputy Jean-Claude Sandrier asked. The right-wing deputy and president of the foreign affairs commission Axel Poniatowski provoked laughter when he said, after 10pm on Wednesday, "Tonight, all Europe is watching France."
The Irish referendum was hardly mentioned, though the socialist deputy Pierre Moscovici noted that "the game is not up yet; we have to watch closely what happens in Ireland". A civil servant at the National Assembly said to me with a sigh that unlike France, "Ireland is a real democracy".
Attendance at Wednesday night's debate was high because the right was determined to defeat a socialist motion to call a referendum on the treaty.
"A treaty that was rejected by the people must be presented to them again, even if its content has changed," said Jean-Marc Ayrault, the president of the socialist group. "It's a question of confidence," Mr Ayrault continued. "Not only do you (the right-wing UMP majority) forget this principle; you make the parliament examine it in the worst conditions, hastily, in the middle of the night, far from the attention of citizens ... The dream of civilisation that you claim to carry for Europe starts with, 'Good night, children'!"
This week's ratification made it painfully clear that divisions created within the socialist party by the 2005 debate have not healed. The party's official policy was that deputies and senators should abstain in the vote to change the constitution as a protest against the lack of a referendum, but vote Yes to the treaty in the Assembly and Senate.
Some, like the prominent No campaigner Laurent Fabius, abstained twice. Others abstained, then voted Yes, or voted Yes twice, or voted No twice. "How many positions in the socialist party?" the left-wing deputy Jean-Marie Le Guen asked, bursting into laughter. "It's the Kama Sutra!"