Gives power to English overturning prohibition covering the French (7)
I believe the answer is:
enables
'gives power to' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'english overturning prohibition covering the french' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'overturning' says the letters should be written backwards.
'prohibition' becomes 'ban' (synonyms).
'covering' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (on top of in down clue).
'the french' becomes 'les' (plural form of 'the' in French).
'ban' backwards is 'nab'.
'e'+'nab'+'les'='ENABLES'
(Other definitions for enables that I've seen before include "Renders capable" , "Makes possible" , "Allows" , "Facilitates or empowers" .)