Sun May 29, 2005 06:29 PM ET
PARIS, May 29 (Reuters) - France's rejection of the European Union constitution is a clear signal to the European Central Bank that it should do more to support growth in the euro zone, a European business group said on Sunday.
"There is also a message for the ECB here," Christoph Leitl, president of Eurochambres, the association of European chambers of commerce and industry, told Reuters.
"The message is that they have to act, they have to contribute to active economic policies."
Some in the "No" camp attacked the ECB during the referendum campaign for not doing enough to stimulate economic activity.
The ECB, which sets euro zone monetary policy, has left its key refinancing rate unchanged at 2.0 percent since June 2003.
Rejection of the constitution, which was designed to make the enlarged bloc run smoothly, is expected to spark a crisis in the European Union as it needed to be ratified by all 25 members of the bloc before it could come into force.
Leitl said the political uncertainty generated by the French result could affect businesses but said the fallout should not be overestimated: "Political uncertainty is always uncertainty for business too, but perhaps we should not overplay it."
He said the current version of the constitution should be discarded and urged the EU to work on a more ambitious treaty.
"This one is dead. This draft is gone and you can't repair it," he said. "I was very strongly in favour of this constitution as it was a small step in the right direction. Now that a small step is not possible, we can try for a big step."