Referendumcampagne in Frankrijk officieel van start (en)

France officially started its campaign on the European Constitution on Monday (16 May), although politicians of all hues have been speaking out both for and against the document for months.

With the referendum on the EU charter in less than two weeks, the rules governing access to broadcast media started at midnight Sunday night.

The rules give party access to the media depending on their performance in the last elections, according to French media.

The biggest parties support the Constitution meaning that the Yes side will have much more airtime than the No side.

For access to airtime, the parties have to have five deputies, or five senators or have obtained five per cent of the vote in the European elections in 2004, according to TF1 France.

At the moment, polls put both camps at roughly neck and neck. This is a turn around for those in favour of the Constitution as the gap between the two sides has narrowed considerably.

However, a poll by Le Figaro showed that the No side has regained the edge and has taken again the lead with 51 per cent.

The referendum will take place on 29 May and will be the start of a few tense days for the EU as the Dutch, who may also vote No to the treaty, will vote just three days later on 1 June.

There has been much speculation about what it would mean if either of the countries were to vote no - particularly France.

Former head of the Commission, Jacques Delors, who is in favour of the Constitution, sparked a furore by telling Le Monde last week that there is likely to be a Plan B if France votes No.

"I refuse to put things in black and white. The duty of the truth means I have to say there could be [a Plan B], but we have to explain the extreme difficulty of the problem", he said leading opponents of the Constitution to say that the text can be renegotiated if rejected.

This is also a view shared by Franco Frattini, the EU justice commissioner who said that the debate on the Treaty would have to be re-opened if French citizens voted No.

However, since then other EU politicians have tried to play down this option insisting that agreement was so difficult to reach in the first place that it would be impossible to renegotiate.

All 25 member states have to ratify the treaty before it can come into force - the deadline for ratification is the end of October 2006.