EU executive signals concern on French treaty move

BRUSSELS, June 22 (Reuters) There must be no roll-back in core European Union policies, the bloc's executive arm said today as France sought to remove competition safeguards as a core objective of the bloc.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to remove a key reference to ''free and undistorted'' competition from a treaty to eform the EU that is being negotiated by EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.

''You've heard the president (of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso) saying before very clearly that ... there can be no roll-back on the achievements of the core policies of the European Union,'' a Commission spokeswoman told a briefing.

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