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French referendum thumbs down EU constitution
Paris: France overwhelmingly rejected the European Union constitution on Sunday, by 55 per cent vote to 45 per cent, pitching the EU deep into crisis. The heavy defeat stalls European integration and will also unsettle some financial markets.

"The French people have given a huge smack in the face to an entire system that has the nerve to tell us what to think," said nationalist French politician Philippe de Villiers, a leading opponent of the charter. "The constitution is no more."

Many voters used the vote to punish the government over France's economy and high unemployment. The euro fell just over half a cent in early trading in Asia to 1.2516/19, down from 1.2573 in New York on Friday, despite already falling in recent weeks partly because of doubts about the fate of the constitution.

Many voters resent what they see as France's declining role in the Union, especially with the expansion to 25 members last year, and say the treaty enshrines economic policies that have failed to stop the loss of jobs to low-wage economies.

Nine countries have approved the treaty, including Germany, which alongside France drove creation of the post-World War Two economic alliance that developed into the European Union.

If the constitution does not survive, the EU will continue to operate under its current rules. But the system is widely seen as unworkable for a Union intent on enlarging further, and decision-making could soon become paralysed.

The constitution was signed by EU leaders last October in Rome after long and tough negotiations.

EU officials said before the vote the treaty could be doomed if a large majority of voters in France rejected it and Dutch voters threw it out in a vote on Wednesday. Dutch ministers urged voters on Sunday to ignore the result in France.
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Oil to cost $30-40 per barrel in '06-07: EBRD
Belgrade: Oil prices will trade in $30-40 per barrel in the medium term, during '06 and '07, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) forecast today.

"We assume there will be some moderation in the oil prices" from current levels close to $50, the bank's deputy chief economist Steven Fries said on the opening day of the bank's annual conference in the Serbian capital.

"Our assumption for the medium term is for a gradual decline in the oil price down to $30-40," Fries told reporters. "We don't anticipate that happening over the course of '05, but over '06-07, particularly as significant new supplies come on stream, resulting in a re-balancing of supply and demand levels across the oil sector," he added.

The EBRD was founded in '91 to assist the transition of former communist nations to market economies, currently invests in 27 countries.
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