Stifled jaw jaw time

Constitutional reform is hardly a matter to whet the appetite, but that’s exactly what’s on today’s political agenda as both chambers of the French parliament get together to twiddle with the fundamentals of the Fifth Republic.

It’s all in aid of yet another mouth-watering issue guaranteed to make anyone choke over their early morning cornflakes, ratification of the European Union’s constitution; The so-called Lisbon treaty.

Stifle the yawns and pay attention. This is important stuff – so we are told.

The Treaty would replace the current six-month rotating presidency of the EU with a two-and-a-half year fixed term as well as introduce qualified majority voting on a number of policy areas, which at the moment require a unanimous vote. It’s all in the name of institutional reform, designed to cope with an ever-larger EU.

You might remember that it was France that put the kibosh on the last attempt to introduce an EU constitution when 55 per cent of voters rejected the proposals in a national referendum back in 2005.

A lesson learned as far as the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was concerned. When he came to power last May, he not only presented himself as the saviour of Europe by proposing a revised “mini treaty” but he also promised that a vote on the issue here would be put to the French parliament rather than to the people.

Both chambers of parliament voted separately in favour of the new treaty last November – with hefty majorities on each occasion, and Sarkozy put his signature to it, along with the leaders of the other 26 EU countries in Lisbon a month later.

But this is where the whole process gets a little complicated and typically French.

Some elements of the EU treaty deal with national sovereignty and as such contravene the existing French constitution. The only way around the problem is to change the French constitution, which can only happen when both parliamentary chambers meet in a joint session, or congress, and approve the required amendments.

That’s what’s scheduled for Monday afternoon. A three-fifths majority of votes cast will be needed for that change to be endorsed.

Once that’s done, the National Assembly and the Senate will both have the green light later this week to discuss the actual terms for making the alterations in the constitution and that will pave the way for the treaty to be adopted finally into French law.

Phew.

The chances of opponents to the Lisbon treaty stopping the process of its ratification in its tracks are minimal – at least here in France. Congress will not be a chance to debate the issue – that has already been done - but simply an occasion for each of the nine parliamentary groupings to state their case for or against a constitutional change. They’ll get a maximum of five minutes each before a vote is taken.

All the same, there are likely to be a lot of long faces, especially on the Left of the political spectrum. The Communist party has not minced its words with its criticism of the way in which it claims Sarkozy has ignored the democratic process here in France, by stifling any debate, taking the final decision away from the French and pushing it through parliament.

But their cause hasn’t been helped much by a divided Socialist party, which wants to avoid a repetition of the internal infighting that occurred back in 2005. It’s still divided over the issue but has recommended in Monday’s vote, that its parliamentarians abstain against the process or the way in which ratification is taking pace – without actually preventing it from happening.

Opponents of the treaty trot out the same arguments that will doubtlessly be heard in many of the 27 EU countries as it goes through its stages of national ratification.

Those include claims that it doesn’t differ substantially from the original plan put to the vote for constitutional reform - and rejected by both the French and the Dutch in national votes,

Whatever the case may be throughout the rest of the EU, it looks as though this time around at least the French are not going to block the process.

A process that Sarkozy hopes will be completed by the end of this year – during guess whose presidency of the EU.