Strasbourg, 12/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - With the exception of PS and UMP members, MEPs from all political groups took part in a press conference on Tuesday on the fringes of the European Parliament in Strasbourg to denounce the planned reform of ballot box procedures for regional and European elections in France (see yesterday's Europe, p.6). The draft law that has just been published by the French government with the support of the majority party foresees the country being divided into eight huge regional constituencies for European elections with a raising of the thresholds to restrict the representation of small parties, whereas the current system is based on full proportionality in a national constituency. The bill is being presented as a way of bringing MPs and MEPs closer to citizens, but in reality the reform is expected to strengthen the two-way split of French politics to the advantage of the UMP and the PS. This is what was denounced by the Vice-President of the Greens/EFA group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, UDF MEPs like Jean-Louis Bourlanger and Marielle de Sarnez (who spoke of a "blow to Europe and democracy"), Separatist William Atbol and Belgian Nelly Maes for the European Free Alliance, who said it caricaturised regionalisation. French Green Gérard Onesta said the Constitutional Council should examine the reform very closely, and Liberal Jean-Thomas Jean-Thomas Nordmann described it as an "attack on democracy and diversity" that might make even more people abstain from voting and lead to even more people voting populist. Cohn-Bendit said the PS had openly refused to participate in the MEPs' initiative, describing their refusal as "sad and explicit".