THE European Commission’s policymaking is virtually paralysed, so concerned is it not to upset French voters ahead of France’s referendum on the European Union constitution next month.

Helping the French Government combat the growing “no” vote is a top priority for the Commission, albeit an unpublicised one, and it is shelving, downgrading or reversing legislation that may upset the French: a proposed minimum duty on wine has been deferred. “France is very sensitive. And we are very sensitive to France,” one European Commissioner told The Times.

Officals fear that if the Commission resorts to similar tactics ahead of sensitive referendums in Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland and the Czech Republic the policymaking machinery will be “completely hamstrung” until late next year. Despite the Commission’s tactic, yesterday yet another French poll showed the “no” campaign pulling ahead, with 55 per cent of respondents intending to vote against the constitution on May 29, and 45 per cent in favour.

The most obvious pandering to French public opinion occurred last month when Tony Blair and the Commission gave in to President Chirac’s demands that a directive opening up the European market in services — highly unpopular in France — be diluted. One EU diplomat said at the time: “We are standing back to let Chirac have his say, because he has got to win the referendum.”

Since then, as the “no” camp has extended its lead in France, the Commission has also watered down regulations in areas such as local transport, supermarket planning laws and government aid to industry. “The problem is that in a referendum campaign any proposal takes on an extra dimension,” explained one EU official. Another privately admitted: “We will have more room for manoeuvre after May 29.”

Last week M Chirac declared that the Commission would be imposing controls on Chinese textile imports to protect European clothing manufacturers — even though it had not announced any such decision.

Peter Mandelson, the Trade Commissioner, is expected to impose safeguards against a flood of cheap Chinese imports next week. The Commission is procrastinating over draft legislation to bring competition into the provision of local bus and train services — a highly sensitive issue for France where monopolies are the norm.

Proposals to introduce a minimum Europe-wide duty on wine have been shelved until next year. There is no duty on wine in France, and such proposals would be seen as an assault on French culture.

“The issue is very sensitive. We were told to make proposals taking into account sensitivities. We won’t say anything about wine,” one Commission official said.

Plans to overhaul the EU’s state aid rules have also been placed on hold. They were to have been discussed by the Commission this week, but were taken off the agenda, ostensibly because further work was needed.

The Commission is also taking longer than usual to rule on two-year-old French legislation to limit the spread of supermarkets. Brussels suspects that the measures are aimed against German chains and so are illegal. Despite a lengthy investigation, the Commission is now unlikely to decide before late June whether the legislation should be challenged in the courts.

Joaquín Almunia, the Monetary Affairs Commissioner, has been unusually quiet at the prospect of France breaching the eurozone’s deficit rules, even though he criticised Italy last week for failing to get to grips with its public debt.

In March José Manuel Barroso, the Commission President, said that tailoring Brussels’s work to forthcoming referendums “would mean that the Commission is completely hamstrung for the next year or so. Saying ‘you can’t do this or that’ is just not an option.”

However, with the “no” vote growing in a number of countries, the Commission has evidently decided it can no longer afford such indifference.

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