Royal seeks French EU charter vote in 2009

LUXEMBOURG, Jan 17 (Reuters) French Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal announced today that she would ask the French public to vote again in 2009 on a new European Union constitution if she were elected.

Royal, who is running neck-in-neck in opinion polls with conservative frontrunner and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, said she wanted the EU to be more socially accountable so that workers did not feel left out by European integration.

''I want the French people to be consulted once again in a referendum in 2009,'' she told reporters after a meeting with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

France, which rejected an EU constitution in a referendum in 2005, will hold the first-round of the French presidential elections on April 22. A second round run-off between the top two candidates is scheduled for May 6.

Royal also said the European Central Bank should not be ''omnipotent'' and urged it to take into account the impact on economic growth and jobs when setting interest rates.

''It is important that the European Central Bank has as an objective not only to master inflation, but also growth and social progress,'' she said.

Royal has previously argued that ECB policy hindered growth in France.

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