PARIS, October 31, 2007 (LPAC) -- A second attempt to rip up economic welfare programs and submerge national sovereignty under a European constitution, is meeting fierce opposition from the left in France and Portugal. An earlier proposal, known as the European Constitutional Treaty, ratified by the European parliament in 2004, was defeated after it was rejected by popular votes in France and The Netherlands in 2005.

The new proposal, which has replaced the words "European Constitutional" with "Simplified European" Treaty, was adopted Oct. 18-19 at a meeting of European parliamentarians in Lisbon. Although almost unreported in the European media, the largest demonstration in the history of Portugal (200,000 people) was organized by the communist and other left parties to protest the Lisbon meeting.

Yesterday, four members of the European parliament from France announced their support for an all-out mobilization to defeat the new proposal in a new popular referendum.

At a meeting in Paris last night, speakers denounced the proposal as an attack on social and economic rights of workers. A representative of the French Communist Party, who attended the Lisbon meeting, said nothing was done to curb the policies of the European Central Bank, and also denounced the new treaty as submerging national military policy under the decisions of NATO. It was noted that the European Parliament can oversee extraditions among its 27 member states, but cannot prevent extraditions from the European Union to the United States.

Motivating the mobilization to reject the new treaty, one speaker cited a poll that 54% of the French people supported the recent rail strike, and that over 60% are in favor of holding a popular referendum on the new treaty.