French constitution gets a dash of green

[Kire]

Liberté! Égalité! Environment?
French constitution gets a dash of green
By David Case
14 Jul 2005


Ahhh, the French. Toujours inexplicable. They chain smoke. They drink enough espresso before noon to cause lockjaw. And they jam their veins with butter, cheese, and beef. But despite how reckless they seem, their leaders recently made a stand for public health, granting every citizen the right to a balanced and healthy environment.

That's right. In their battles against climate change, genetically modified organisms, and nuclear reprocessing, the French now enjoy the support of an "environment charter" amended to the country's constitution. "Decisions made responding to today's needs should not compromise the capacity of future generations and other populations to satisfy their own needs," the document's preamble proclaims. In 10 articles, it then outlines a series of environmental rights and responsibilities incumbent on the French people, ranging from the right to access information about the environment to an obligation upon political leaders to promote sustainable development.

The charter, ratified this spring, was the pet project of President Jacques Chirac, who first championed it at the time of his 2002 reelection. At first, the idea met with the typical opposition from business groups. But Chirac, an astute politician, piggybacked the charter onto an important national assembly vote that would clear the way for the European Union constitution referendum.

In doing so, he undermined resistance from the right, which was willing to go along with the add-on to ensure support for the E.U., explains David Michel of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University. While the E.U. referendum was later defeated by a popular vote, the environmental charter (which wasn't put to the people) had already prevailed by a margin of 531 to 23 in a special joint session of the French parliament.

More: http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2005/07/14/case-france/index.html?source=weekly