Treacy confident France will approve EU constitution

The Minister of State for European Affairs, Noel Treacy, said today that he is confident that the French public will vote "Yes" to the proposed EU constitution in a referendum on May 29.

However, he insisted that the outcome of the vote will not affect the timing and wording of the Irish referendum, which is expected later in the year.

He was speaking in Galway at the launch of "Europe week", which will debate the constitution in a series of seminars.

Mr Treacy said that “France has been the heartbeat of Europe and the catalyst of the whole European operation. I’m very confident that the French people will take their attitude to the EU constitution very seriously and I think the polls are beginning to show that they are moving towards a conclusive ‘Yes’ vote."