With only sixty days to go before the European elections, the centre-right UMP party of French President Nicolas Sarkozy is still embroiled in discussions over the composition of its electoral lists. Gender parity and constituency issues, and demands from centrist party allies, are complicating the UMP's choices. EurActiv France reports.

Initially planned for Marseille on 26 and 27 March, the presentation of the comprehensive party list for France's eight constituencies was postponed, then set for 28 April, and then postponed again.

A strategy meeting with the party's 72 candidates, originally scheduled for 28 March, was also postponed. Moreover, a press conference to launch the campaign at the UMP headquarters in Paris, initially scheduled for yesterday (9 April), had to be cancelled, a press officer told EurActiv.

Franck Riester, the UMP's campaign director, adopted a reassuring tone: "The lists will be submitted in due time," he told EurActiv France.