Legislators in the French National Assembly approved the law by a comfortable margin of 336 against 52. Out of 320 senators, 265 gave their backing.
The treaty's backers were led by President Sarkozy's conservative UMP party, which holds a strong parliamentary majority. The opposition Socialists, who were split during the failed 2005 referendum, were once again divided: 121 supported ratification, but 25 rejected it amid 59 abstentions. The Communists as a whole voted against the treaty.
France will become the largest country to complete ratification of the Treaty once President Nicolas Sarkozy signs it into law, a procedure which is considered "a formality" and may even happen today, according to a French diplomatic source in Brussels. Sarkozy had been eager for France to ratify the treaty before it takes over the EU presidency in July.
However, it remains unclear as to whether the president plans to use the opportunity to lend bigger media resonance to the event. "There may be a declaration," the diplomatic source said, fending off suggestions that the ratification process was being played down in the face of a possible backlash in public opinion.
"Nobody's hiding," the source said, admitting however that the parliamentary ratification route chosen by France was "less dramatic" than a referendum.
Meanwhile, in Slovakia, opposition lawmakers were not present in the chamber at the time of a scheduled vote on the new EU treaty in protest at a proposed new media law, leaving the ruling parties five votes short of the majority needed to approve the treaty (see Euractiv 05/02/08).
In a separate development, the Portuguese parliament rejected a demand from four parties that the new treaty be ratified by referendum.
