By Geoff Meade

FRENCH prime minister Lionel Jospin yesterday joined the dispute on Europe's future, calling for a European constitution, an "economic government" and a "social treaty", run by a "federation of nation states".The French blueprint differs significantly from the latest German proposals for full integration, with Mr Jospin emphasising a greater role in EU affairs for national parliaments.

European Commission President Romano Prodi is expected to deliver his response today in a speech in Paris, concentrating on the need to keep the Brussels Commission fully independent, whatever the level of EU involvement of nation states.

Mr Jospin significantly did not back British prime minister Tony Blair's call for a European Parliament second chamber made up of national MPs. But he did call for the creation of a permanent conference of national parliamentarians to prevent Europe encroaching too far into member states' sovereignty. This would be the backbone of a ''federation of Nation States'' which Mr Jospin said was necessary in an enlarged EU in which improved co-operation would be indispensable.

The speech, Mr Jospin's first major contribution to the debate on Europe since assuming office in June 1997, is in marked contrast to the German approach, but still gives Euro sceptics fresh ammunition, with its call for "economic government" of the single currency countries, and a "social treaty." Mr Jospin said the future Europe needed more economic solidarity, with an economic government of the euro zone - and an end to unfair tax competition with a harmonised corporate tax system for Europe. He said that the co-ordination of economic policies had to be ''considerably enhanced'', as part of ''social solidarity''.

"We must aim for a European social treaty. Working conditions must be harmonised upwards. A genuine body of European social law must be put in place and there must be a special focus on information to employees and their involvement in the life of companies, as well as on lay-offs, the struggle against job insecurity and wage policies," he said.

He said the "Federation of Nation States" was an excellent idea - and France rejected the notion that "federation" meant a European executive branch answerable solely to the European Parliament. Instead, the French view of "federation" was "a gradual controlled process of sharing competences or transferring competences to the Union level".

That, said Mr Jospin, accurately reflected the origins of the EU: "The federalist ideal and the reality of European nation states".

There should be more clarity of national and EU competences, but no "re-nationalisation" of EU core policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy, which, said Mr Jospin needed to be redirected to balance rural development and the needs of farmers. He said he wanted a European Constitution, with the Charter of Fundamental Rights at its heart, to set out the structure and functioning of the EU institutions.