The BBC website has an incisive new article on the constitution debate in France:

"A charge often made against the proposed EU constitution by its opponents in France is that it is an "Anglo-Saxon" document - a plot to enshrine Thatcherite policies which will devastate the social balance of European economies. As an example, they point to the phrase used in Article I-3 (2) which states that there shall be 'an internal market where competition is free and undistorted'. …

"The problem with such an approach is that in many key areas the constitutional treaty essentially repeats existing policy.

"The original Treaty of Rome from 1957, which established the then European Economic Community, also said, in Part One, Article 3 (c) that there should be 'an internal market characterised by the abolition, as between Member States, of obstacles to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital'. And further, it said there should be 'a system ensuring that competition in the internal market is not distorted'.

"The principles of the 'free and undistorted' internal market were established from the start. So if you complain about the constitution, as you are entitled to, you also have to complain about the Treaty of Rome."