Franse senatoren wijzen verplicht referendum over Turkse toetreding af (en)
French senators have rejected a clause approved in May by parliamentarians that would have made it compulsory to hold a referendum on EU membership of large countries, a move that targeted Turkey.
A large majority of the senators – 297 to seven – of all political parties except for the communists voted to scrap the amendment on Monday night (23 June), which they said was "discriminatory" and "offensive" towards Turkey, according to AFP reports.
The text is "inadmissible, scandalous, disgraceful, insulting for Turkey," said socialist senator Alima Boumediene-Thiery prior to the vote in plenary.
"Whether one is for or against Turkey joining the EU, the procedure must be the same as for any other candidate country. Why would the Turks be the only ones to be necessarily submitted to a referendum? Is there not something racist here?" she added.
The clause - part of a larger constitutional reform package - stated that holding a referendum would become obligatory to approve the EU accession of any country whose population surpasses five percent of the EU population (about 500 million people).
It was approved by the National Assembly on 29 May, but with only 48 to 21 votes as most deputies were absent.
Centre-right senator Josselin de Rohan said the amendment was "discriminatory and offensive to our friendly allied country, Turkey. This additional barrier is needless, the precautions being particularly numerous for Turkey's [EU] accession."
"I think it is essential to improve our relations with Turkey, which have deteriorated deeply," he added.
Both the upper and lower houses of the French parliament, as well as the government, had previously agreed to abandon a clause introduced in 2005 on obligatory referendums – to be held on every EU enlargement after Croatia – altogether.
On Monday, the senators went back to an initial version of the text, according to which, it would be up to the French president to decide how to ratify a country's EU accession – via parliamentary vote or via referendum.
The final decision will be taken in July when both houses will gather for a congress meeting where the text has to be agreed by a three-fifths majority.
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