French assembly approves EU treaty

Schroeder and Jospin: enlargement process is irreversible

PARIS, France -- The French National Assembly has supported an EU enlargement treaty, five days after the Irish rejected it.

The assembly, France's lower house of parliament, adopted the bill by 407 to 27 in a vote that cut across party lines, Reuters news agency said.

The treaty now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to adopt the text by the end of the month, completing the ratification process in France.

The rejection in the Irish referendum last week came as a shock to EU leaders as they prepared for their EU summit in Gothenburg, Sweden starting on Friday.

The treaty amends decision-making in the 15-nation bloc in preparation for the influx of up to a dozen new members, mostly from eastern Europe.

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It has to be ratified by all member states to take effect, but only Ireland's constitution requires a referendum.

Leaders of Germany and France meeting in the southwest German town of Freiburg were expected to issue a declaration stressing there must be no delay to the bloc's eastward expansion.

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"We want to make clear that the enlargement process is irreversible," a German government source told Reuters after talks between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

Chirac's spokeswoman added that the leaders were expected to send a "message of confidence" to the mostly eastern European aspirants that the EU remained committed to expansion.

Disagreements between France and Germany marred December's summit in Nice, where leaders of the EU's 15 members disagreed over how best to revamp the bloc's operating rules to accommodate a dozen or more new members over the next decade.

Jospin last month rejected the chancellor's vision of a more centralised Europe, with more powers bestowed on the EU's legislature and commission.

But Tuesday's Franco-German summit in the southwestern German town of Freiburg -- officially devoted to the fight against racism and xenophobia -- took on added significance in the wake of the Irish referendum rejection.

The EU has said it is committed to completing negotiations with a leading wave of candidates for admission to the 15-member bloc by the end of next year.

Admission could then come by 2004 for the frontrunners -- Estonia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Cyprus.

Chirac's spokeswoman said France and Germany -- often seen as the driving forces behind European integration -- had a role in resolving any difficulties posed by the outcome of the Irish referendum, Reuters reported.

European security issues were also expected to feature prominently at the Freiburg summit.

After his meeting with Jospin, Schroeder was expected to chair a meeting of the Franco-German defence and security council, charged with laying the groundwork for a European rapid reaction force of 60,000 troops, envisioned by 2003.

Beyond the summit spotlight, European foreign and defence ministers were expected to try to forge a common stance on a controversial U.S. missile defence plan before their leaders meet with U.S. President George W. Bush in Gothenburg, Sweden on Thursday, Associated Press reported.

Whatever the outcome of the summit, France and Germany were likely to soft-peddle any bilateral disputes in the run-up to the EU summit.

"I don't think much of dwelling for now on individual proposals for the final form of the European Union, who contradicted whom," AP quoted Schroeder saying in an interview with the Badische Zeitung newspaper this week.

"It makes more sense to find out where the middle- and long-term common ground lies."