Economic Move In France

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31363, 8 May 1967, Page 15

Economic Move In France

(N.Z.P.A .-Reuter — Copyright) PARIS, May 7. President de Gaulle’s Government has unexpectedly tabled a controversial bill giving it power to govern by decree over large areas of the French economy.

The bill will allow it to help French industry meet growing competition from other Common Market countries as tariffs are lowered and to open the way to profitsharing in businesses. The Government rushed out the text of the bill yesterday four days ahead of schedule apparently to win public support in the face of a 24hour nation-wide protest strike on May 17. It is also facing a censure motion which will be tabled by Left-wing Opposition deputies in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday when debate begins on the bill. But there is little chance that the Government of the Prime Minister, Mr Georges Pompidou, will be toppled, according to political observers.

The Opposition needs a clear majority of 244 votes and is only expected to muster about 235 if the Communists, the Federation of the Left, and the Centralists all vote against the Government. Defections by Gaullists who object to the Government’s decision to by-pass

Parliament could bring the Government down but the critics have publicly stated that they will remain loyal. The strike, backed by France’s three biggest trade union organisations and by the teachers’ union, will result in a newspaper black-out on May 16—the day of the President’s press conference. The President and Mr Pompidou feel that speed is essential for their measures and that—without decree powers—there would be no chance of getting them through Parliament in the near future.

Thursday Lodging? (N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, May 6. The British application to join the six-nation European Economic Community was expected to be lodged in Brussels, headquarters of the Common Market, next Thursday, informed sources said in London today. The application will be dispatched immediately after the end of a three-day Parliamentary debate on Wednesday night on the British decision to make a second attempt to join the European community.

It will be handed over in Brussels to Mr Renaat van, Enslade, the Belgian Minister for European Affairs, in his capacity as the present chairman of the Common Market’s Council of Ministers.

A copy of the application will also be delivered to Pro* fessor Walter Hallstein, president of the Common Market’s Executive Commission.