Nicolas Sarkozy today put Europe on notice that he aims to revive a "mini constitution" and exclude Turkey from membership should he win the French presidency next year.

Britain would lose its national veto over EU decisions in a move to "super-qualified majority voting" under a wide-ranging reform agenda outlined by the French Interior Minister and leading candidate from the centre-Right.

Segolene Royal, a top contender for the presidency from the Socialist Party, will now be expected to set out a rival vision when she visits Brussels next week.

M Sarkozy told Europe’s capitals today that national parliaments could decide on a slimmer version of the constitution without the need for fresh referenda.

He argued that voters in France and the Netherlands who voted the old constitution down would be satisfied to see that just two-thirds of it remained.

The Germans have pledged to resurrect the process under their revolving presidency of the EU which begins on January 1. M Sarkozy said he wanted France to push through a mini-constitution during its EU leadership in 2008.

"We should resort to a mini-treaty to achieve the most urgent institutional reforms," he told an audience at the Friends of Europe organisation.

One of its priorities would be to "change the rule of unanimity" because "the only way to save Europe politically is to get over this hurdle."

So-called super-qualified majority voting would require 70-80 per cent of national votes for a decision to be adopted, similar to proposals in the rejected treaty.

But should he be elected next spring, this would all only be a precursor to a new European convention to draw up a "phase two" constitution after 2009.

M Sarkozy went on to list a host of other goals which would pose immediate concerns for a new Gordon Brown administration in London, from closing the door on full membership for Turkey to harmonising corporation tax.

He called for a "privileged partnership" with Turkey, as well as with other African and Asian countries to create "huge area of peace and democracy" around the current borders of the EU.

"The European Union is open to all those states which clearly belong to the continent of Europe, such as Switzerland, Norway and the Balkans, and nearby islands like Iceland," he said.

"We must now say who is European and who is not...the absorption capacity of the EU is not infinite."

He also said that the current allocation of one European Commissioner to each EU country had to end.

The President of the Commission should be trusted to choose his own Cabinet, he said, just like national governments. He added that European elections could be reinvigorated if parties were able to run pan-European lists rather than national campaigns which mainly revolved around domestic issues.

Graham Brady, the Shadow Europe Minister, said: "This is a vision of a considerable extension of EU competences and power and shows that, in spite of the French No vote, French politicians - even the more progressive ones such as M Sarkozy - are failing to understand that Europe has already expanded its competences too much.

"It is time we focused on brining powers back closer to people. It is ironic that M Sarkozy was lamenting earlier in the week the impact of the 35-hour week when by extending qualified majority voting he would actually be encouraging more regulations on business, not less."

The eurosceptic Open Europe think-tank said: "This shows that the likely future French President is determined to bring back the EU Constitution. By ‘cherry-picking’ the parts he thinks are the least controversial, Sarkozy intends to dress up the Constitution as a new ‘mini’ treaty that doesn’t merit another referendum - one he would be more than likely to lose.

"This is unlikely to be popular with Gordon Brown, who will recognise that creating an EU President, an EU Foreign Minister and scrapping vetoes in sensitive areas of policy, like tax, would be strongly opposed in Britain. Sarkozy is effectively proposing to implement key parts of the old Constitution by the back door, and if he succeeds, Brown will find it difficult to resist calls for a referendum here. He wouldn’t want to begin his premiership with a vote he’s certain to lose."

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