Amid growing international concerns over stock option practices, a group of French lawmakers and politicians are backing legislation that would significantly limit the ability of company executives and directors to exercise their stock options.

The bill, introduced June 28 by former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, would prevent board members and executives from exercising their stock options while in office. At least 138 of the National Assembly's 577 members have signed a request to put the legislation on the lower chamber's agenda, according to Challenges, the French electronic business journal.

In a July 14 interview, President Jacques Chirac said he favored the bill and asked his finance minister, Thierry Breton, to propose appropriate measures. While the bill has not been formally endorsed by the government, it likely will be, especially in light of presidential elections next year and the fact that Breton is the author of the 2005 law that requires greater transparency in executive pay, according to the daily Le Monde.

Medef, the union of French employers, has called Balladur's proposal to limit the exercise of stock options "absurd" and counter-productive because it would undermine executives' incentives to increase shareholder returns.

The legislation was proposed after news reports of stock options exercised by high-profile executives. Noel Forgeard, a former top executive at the EADS aerospace and defense company, earned 2.5 million Euros ($3.2 million) from exercising options weeks before a profit warning was issued. At the Vinci construction group, former Chairman Antoine Zacharias took home an estimated 250 million Euros ($320 million) after cashing in his stock options, in addition to a 13 million Euros ($16.4 million) severance package.

In a study published by L'Expansion, an online business journal, top executives at the CAC 40 companies hold stock options that are worth as much as 700 million Euros ($884 million).