4 February French News
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 10:40PM Travel update for Montpellier on Monday
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AIR FRANCE réduit son programme de vols à l’arrivée et au départ de Montpellier pour la journée du 06 février 2012. Vols prevus annulés – lundi 06 fevrier Ce prévisionnel n'exclut pas d'autres annulations de dernière minute ainsi que des retards.
L’Aéroport Montpellier Méditerranée recommande aux passagers de se rapprocher de leur compagnie aérienne
Weather warning – Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th February
French industrial action 5th to 9th February
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NEWS
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French man dies in cold, snow expected in Paris
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France’s bitter cold temperatures have claimed their first life as forecasters said the thermometer will remain below freezing point longer than expected. Biting winds raked the east and centre Friday and snow is predicted in the Paris region on Sunday.
An 82-year-old man, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, was found unconscious in his pyjamas on a country road in the eastern Moselle region Friday. He died shortly after being found by the emergency services.
His wife, who is bedridden, was waiting for her nurse to come to report that he was missing.
Friday’s Angers-Monaco football match was postponed because of the cold.
Although there were clear blue skies and bright winter sunshine in much of the country Friday, the thermometer stayed way down and forecasters said it was going to stay that way.
Thirty-five of France’s 101 departments were placed on the second highest cold-weather alert.
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Meteorologists said that temperatures will fall again on Friday night and Saturday in the east of the country, which will bear the brunt of an anticyclone coming from Siberia. Its effects will hit the Rhone valley and the Mediterranean coast later. Clouds coming from Belgium are expected to bring snow in the north and the east side of Paris when they encounter the icy temperatures, sending temperatures down again as the ground freezes. Temperatures are likely to be -10°C with wind chill factor pushing them down another seven to nine degrees. |
Demand on the power supply is expected to break 2010’s record on Monday. In Brittany and the Côte d’Azur, where the power grid is least efficient, households have been asked to turn off appliances for at least four hours a day to avoid blackouts.
Only the far west will see a slight rise in temperatures, despite earlier forecasts that a warm front would affect the whole country early next week.
Latest forecasts predict the cold snap will last until next Thursday or Friday.
Emergency accomodation for the homeless will be open 24 hours a day, Housing Minister Benoist Apparu announced Friday, with 19,000 extra places made available and medical teams mobilised to persuade those reluctant to take places to do so.
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At least 218 people have died in Europe's big freeze:
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‘Extras’ bussed in for Sarkozy publicity stunt
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a visit to a social housing building site to highlight his work on this key election issue - but according to builders at the site, many of the ‘workers’ Sarkozy met on the tour had been bussed in.
Bemused builders on Friday accused President Nicolas Sarkozy’s aides of bussing in fake ‘workers’ to make the embattled French leader look more popular during a visit to a social housing project, according to Europe 1 radio.
The building site, in the Essone administrative region southwest of Paris, is being developed into 130 affordable homes and illustrates a key issue in the run up to the May’s presidential election: the soaring cost of housing in the capital and surrounding area.
And Sarkozy certainly got plenty of attention.
One builder told Europe 1 he suspected that managers of other building firms from across the region had been cajoled into sending their employees along.
'Look busy'
“I recognised people from other sites,” he said, while a colleague added that suppliers, partners, site managers as well as complete strangers seemed to be milling around.
Everyone was told to “look busy”, they said, despite freezing temperatures that would normally have made it forbidden to work at all.
When pressed by Europe 1, a spokesman for the Elysée Palace did not deny that there had been a supplementary contingent at the site during Thursday’s visit.
However, the spokesman argued that this was to give “everyone who has worked on this site, or might potentially work there in the future, the chance to come along.”
Bizarrely, construction firm 3F said in a statement on Friday that it “categorically denied” that any extras had been drafted in for the presidential visit, insisting that “the regular workforce of 67 was there as well as management staff of other companies involved in the project.”
Sarkozy, who is lagging behind Socialist rival Francois Hollande in the polls, has yet to announce his candidacy for May’s presidential election.
Staying on-message, he told the assembled “workers”, all wearing heavy-duty overalls and hard hats, that “France has no choice but to make housing more affordable for ordinary people.”
But when somebody butted in with the question “so are you going to be a candidate or not?” Sarkozy replied, “Is this on camera or isn't it? I think you get what I mean.”
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French planes forbidden in Turkish airspace
After the French Senate accepted a bill on the criminalization of Armenian Genocide denial Turkey started sanctions against France .
French planes are now forbidden to enter to Turkish air territory according to the Turkish website turkiyegazetesi.com.
According to the source two French military planes returning from Afghanistan were forbidden to enter to Turkish territory - they had to bypass it and return to France through other countries.
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French drug regulator searched in Mediator case
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(Reuters) - Investigators searched the offices of French healthcare regulator Afssaps on Thursday in connection with a case involving the anti-diabetes drug Mediator, which officials blame for at least 500 deaths in France.
Judicial sources said that investigators also searched the homes of several executives of Afssaps, which is under scrutiny for allowing the sale of Mediator long after it had been pulled from the market elsewhere.
Public concern about the agency has been increased by the scandal over breast implants manufactured by the now-bankrupt French company PIP.
"This important operation took place in the presence of the judges in charge of the case, the public prosecutors and 25 investigators," a judicial source told Reuters of Thursday's search.
Jacques Servier, the founder of Servier Laboratories which produced Mediator, is being investigated on suspicion of dishonest practices, deception over the drug's quality, and of falsely obtaining authorization to sell it.
A trial is expected in May.
Mediator - mostly prescribed by doctors as a weight-loss pill - was sold to as many as 5 million people in France between 1976 and November 2009, when it was withdrawn, years after being pulled in Spain and Italy. State health inspectors have said the drug should have been retired in France a decade earlier.
According to the French health ministry, at least 500 people died of heart valve trouble in France because of exposure to Mediator's active ingredient, benfluorex. Other estimates based on extrapolations put the death toll closer to 2,000.
Servier denies having misled authorities and patients. The company recognizes 38 deaths linked to the drug, but says only four of these were caused by it.
The Mediator scandal - which has already prompted the resignation of the head of Afssaps - is France's worst in years.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has promised to shake up the healthcare system and make it more transparent in response to a slew of lawsuits filed by groups of victims' families.
Servier, 89, was awarded France's national merit medal, the Legion d'Honneur, by Sarkozy - who was once his lawyer - less than a year before the drug was pulled.
Eurozone service sector grows after four-month lull
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The Spanish service sector continues to contractThe eurozone's service sector has grown for the first time in four months, although Spain and Italy have continued to post falls in business activity.
The Markit eurozone services purchasing managers' index (PMI) was 50.4 in January, up from 48.8 in December. Any score under 50 represents a contraction.
It follows a manufacturing survey of 48.8, up from 46.9 in December.
Markit said the survey suggested a recession could be kept at bay.
Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit said: "The final eurozone PMI data indicates that business conditions stabilised following declines seen in the final four months of last year and that the region may avoid a slide back into recession."
The two surveys helped improve the composite index for January, which includes services, construction and manufacturing, increase to 50.4 from 48.3 in December.
'Slower decline'
The survey also found an increasing gap between the stronger eurozone economies, such as Germany, and weaker countries such as Spain.
The survey found growth hit a seven-month high in Germany and a five-month high in France, while ongoing downturns were seen in Italy, Spain and the Irish Republic. However, the rates of decline fell for Spain and Italy.
Mr Williamson added: "Confidence may have risen but remains very low by historical standards of the survey, linked to the fact that inflows of new business continued to fall and that lower prices often had to be offered to win sales, which will dent profit margins.
"The region's debt crisis is also by no means resolved, and any setbacks in current negotiations could easily cause confidence to slump again."
French air transport unions call for strikes
Unions for pilots, cabin attendants and ground workers in France have called for strike action from Feb. 6 through Feb. 9 to protest a bill going before the French senate that would obligate each employee planning to strike to give 48 hrs.’ notice.
The new bill was voted by the national assembly Jan. 25 and aims to secure a minimum service by the air transport sector during strikes.
Air France (AF) said it expects to be affected by the strike but could not predict the impact because employees are not currently obligated to inform the company in advance of their intention to strike.
“Air France will do its best to adjust its flight schedule depending on how many of its employees join the strike. However, some last minute delays and cancellations may arise,” AF said in a statement.
According to the French Ministry of Transport, there were 1,131 disputes in the country’s air transport sector over the past three years (392 in 2009, 379 in 2010 and 360 in 2011) with 176 days of industrial action affecting airlines or airports (68 days in 2009, 45 days in 2010 and 63 days in 2011).
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MoDem's Bayrou - zero public spending to reduce debt
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Self-styled centrist candidate François Bayrou, currently running fourth in opinion polls with 11-15 per cent of potential votes, plans to redress France’s balance of payments by making 50 billion euros worth of spending cuts and pulling in revenue of 50 billion euros.
He says this will reduce French debt by 100 billion euros by 2015.
The balanced budget will be brought about by several measures including the reduction of public spending to zero and increasing VAT by one per cent in 2012 and a further one per cent in 2014 if necessary.
Other proposed measures include:
- Writing the Golden Rule on balancing a country’s budget into the Constitution
- Creating an independent label which will identify how much of a product was made in France.
- Promoting products labeled ‘Made in France’.
- Identifying industrial sectors which need to be developed such as renewable energy and biotechnology.
- Encouraging Europeans to put their savings into long-term investments.
- Organising a summit to promote an alliance between Europe and developing countries to overcome the current economic crisis.
The first round of the French presidential election takes place 22 April on with a run-off vote on 6 May.
China 'considering' eurozone rescue Wen says
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China is "considering" contributing to European rescue funds, Premier Wen Jiabao has told reporters.
But Mr Wen did not make any firm commitment to assist during his news briefing with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
European leaders view China - with $3.2 trillion (£2tn) in foreign reserves - as a possible sources of funds to bail out struggling eurozone economies.
Mrs Merkel will offer reassurance about the situation in Europe, watchers say.
Iran and Syria are also expected to be on the agenda during her two-day visit.
'Urgent' task
Resolving Europe's debt crisis was "urgent and important", Mr Wen told reporters.
"China is considering greater involvement in resolving Europe's debt crisis by participating in the European Financial Stability Fund and the European Stability Mechanism."
The EFSF is a temporary rescue fund expected to be replaced by the ESM - a 500bn-euro permanent bailout fund - in July.
Europe is China's biggest export market, and Mr Wen reiterated that China supported a stable euro - saying it had a "great impact" on China.
But Mrs Merkel told reporters that Chinese leaders had stressed that European leaders needed to do more to resolve the eurozone crisis themselves before Beijing stepped in, Reuters news agency reported.
Accompanied by a 20-strong trade delegation, Mrs Merkel is scheduled to meet President Hu Jintao in the capital.
On Friday, she will visit Guangdong province with Mr Wen and executives from various industries.
Mutual dependence
This is Mrs Merkel's fifth visit to China. The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says the two countries need each other.
Chinese purchases of German goods have kept the German economy growing much faster than that of other European countries, he adds, and Chinese imports of German technology has allowed the Chinese economy to improve.
Mrs Merkel is also likely to seek support from China for a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, and urge Beijing not to increase its imports of Iranian oil, following EU bans last month.
Also on the agenda is access to what are called "rare earth elements" used in the manufacture of many electronics components.
China mines 97% of the global supply and has been accused of limiting its supply to fetch higher prices.
Negotiations with banks on Greece 'ultra difficult': Juncker
 Jean-Claude Juncker (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo) |
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LUXEMBOURG : Negotiations to fix a massive write-down with private investors of Greek sovereign debt are at an "ultra difficult" stage, Eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday.
"These negotiations are ultra difficult," the Luxembourg prime minister told school pupils in a blunt address, referring to the key first condition behind a global agreement on a second financial rescue for Athens.
Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup that gathers finance ministers from the 17 currency partners, joked in the school that the progress of the negotiations meant "this will be the last happy moment of the day for me".
Meanwhile, the head of the organisation negotiating for the banks warned in Frankfurt on Thursday that the negotiations could take "weeks" to wrap up.
"We are very close and hopefully will reach an agreement within the next weeks or days," said Josef Ackermann, head of Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank.
Ackermann, the head of the Institute of International Finance which is representing the banks in the negotiations, said he was "likely" to travel to Athens this weekend.
Private-sector creditors are being asked to accept a so-called "haircut" or debt writedown of "70 percent or more" on their holdings of Greek debt, he said.
"The question is, whether others contribute as well," Ackermann said, in an apparent reference to EU states and the European Central Bank.
Beyond debt restructuring talks, Greece is also in negotiations with public creditors - the European Union and the International Monetary Fund - to finalise a new series of measures in order to unlock 130 billion euros of loans which were promised by the Eurozone in October.
Speaking in The Hague, meanwhile, the European Union's top economic official and commissioner for the Eurozone, Olli Rehn, kept up pressure on the banks.
He said he expected an agreement on "substantial involvement" of the private sector, the "key condition" for any real breakthrough in avoiding a disorderly default by the Greek government, "by the end of this week".
Brussels discovers new €15bn black hole in Greece's finances
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Pressure on Greece's recession-stricken economy has intensified after international debt inspectors admitted an additional €15bn (£12.5bn) would be needed to fill a newly discovered black hole in the country's finances.
On a day when Ireland's government reduced its growth forecast and Madrid told Spanish banks to raise an extra €50bn to cover toxic assets, Brussels officials said European countries and state-owned banks would be asked for contributions to help Athens out of its fiscal troubles.
The fresh evidence of Greece's desperate financial plight came as it continued to discuss the terms of a deal with private sector creditors aimed at writing down debts by €100bn, and was an admission that the "haircut" being taken by banks, hedge funds and insurance companies would not be enough on its own to remove the risk of a default.
International Monetary Fund officials said that time was running out to finalise the negotiations in time to trigger payment of the next tranche of its €130bn bailout from the European commission, the European Unionand the IMF.
The so-called troika has recognised in the past few days that Greece faces an impossible task in reducing debt when the economy is in such deep recession, and now accepts that the country's sovereign creditors will have to supplement the debt relief being provided by the private sector. Spending cuts, tax increases and the general uncertainty of the crisis have already pushed Greece into a slump, which in turn has eliminated many of the gains from the austerity measures.
Although China's premier, Wen Jiabao, raised hopes after talks with the German chancellor Angela Merkel that the world's fastest-growing emerging economy would consider boosting its contribution to Europe's bailout fund, there were fresh signs of strain in those countries most affected by the sovereign debt crisis.
Spain's finance minister, Luis de Guindos, ushered in a fresh round of consolidation when he told banks they had to make provision for bad loans and write downs in the country's troubled property sector.
With Spain falling into the second part of a double-dip recession and unemployment at 23%, de Guindos's new rules exposed the still dire state of the property market. Officials claimed it was the most ambitious attempt to cleanse banks' balance sheets in Europe. "Spain's banking system will emerge from this process stronger, with fewer but more solid banks," the economy ministry said.
Banks have absorbed large amounts of toxic assets as building developers default on loans in a country with a glut of 500,000 unsold new homes. They have already made provision for a third of the €176bn of "troubled" assets on their books, according to Spain's central bank.
Under the new rules total provisions against building lots, many of which are illiquid, will reach 80%. Those against ongoing building developments will hit 65%, while provisions against completed houses will reach 35%.
The measures show how developers, rather than mortgage-holders, became the biggest danger to Spain's banking system after politically controlled savings banks lent freely to them during a dizzying building boom that halted in 2008.
Many of those banks have already disappeared after a round of mergers that began in 2009. The fresh mergers will reduce the total even further, with all eyes now on Bankia, a troubled group formed from the merger of seven savings banks.
The country's bank restructuring fund will receive a €15bn top-up, though this will not add to the deficit. Banking reform was one of the major planks of a programme promised by conservative People's party prime minister Mariano Rajoy, who won November elections.
Meanwhile, Ireland's central bank slashed its growth forecast for 2012 from 1.8% to just 0.5%, blaming a slowdown in consumer spending and a tougher outlook for exports due to Europe's debt crisis.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to accept the government's more optimistic budget forecasts were out of line with those from the central bank and claimed the real priority was creating jobs. "The government's growth figures are median figures and we are prepared to stand by those," said Kenny.
Market attention on Friday will focus on the US where the latest official unemployment data is expected to show further slight improvement in the job market.
While the unemployment rate for January is likely to stay at 8.5%, the world's largest economy is expected to have added 150,000 jobs. That is slightly below growth of 200,000 in December, however, with economists expecting seasonal layoffs of couriers after Christmas to knock job creation.
Data on Thursday reinforced a growing view the US labour market is slowly improving, with new claims for unemployment benefits falling more than expected last week.
US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke sought to reassure markets that there had been signs of modest improvement in the labour market, but conceded the pace of recovery was slow. Bernanke told Congress there were signs uncertainty dogging the US economy was letting up, but that the eurozone crisis still threatened the country's recovery.
French press review
The French presidential elections and more on today's front pages...
Le Figaro’s front page teases with the “shock ideas” the French president is supposedly preparing to announce during his not-yet-announced presidential campaign. The article quotes the visitors to the Elysee palace who tell the stories of combative Sarkozy, who appears ready to attack head-on his socialist rival, François Hollande.
The paper quotes Sarkozy as saying: “Hollande will have to position himself according to my proposals, good luck with that.”
The French president is also planning to give a joint interview with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on both French and Germany public television. Amusingly enough, the article itself does not feature the president’s shock ideas promised on the front page.
The daily’s business section headlines “Despite the crisis, LVMH posts record profits”. In the times of global recession, the French luxury giant reports a 34 per cent rise in profits. The story on the business pages of the conservative daily says that the luxury company's sales on all continents and across all groups of products are booming with 23.7 billion euros turnover.
Libération gives over its front page to a picture of a shouting Egyptian protester. "La revolution en deuil… The revolution in mourning.” It runs the story of the Port Said football match tragedy in which 74 people were killed. The paper fears that one year after the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the country is about to descend into chaos, says the left-leaning daily. “who benefits from the situation ?” asks the daily.
The Egyptians increasingly blame the Egyptian military council which has been managing the country during the transition period.
Aujourd’hui en France's front page features two pictures of the Mona Lisa painting with a story called “the Mona Lisa has a twin sister”. This surprising story is the revelation by the Prado museum in Madrid of a Mona Lisa copy painted at exactly the same time as the original.
The Prado museum confirms the painting is the work of one of Leonardo da Vinci’s students. Even more fascinating is the fact that, according to the Prado museum’s curator, the painting was completed before Da Vinci’s version.
On its’ front page, Aujourd'hui en France is also asking a question “Is Martine Aubry, the head of the Sociaist Party, on the way to becoming prime minister?…” According to the daily, Martine Aubry, who fought François Hollande in the socialist primaries; publicly denied having any ambition to becoming prime minister if François Hollande wins the election. But, says the daily, she’s only putting on a show.
“Our democracy may not be as lost as I thought it was,” says the leader of the French far- right National Front on the politics pages of Aujourd’hui en France. "Marine Le Pen scores a point in the battle for election signatures," says the daily. Each presidential candidate has to present 500 public signatures of local mayors in order to be able to participate in the presidential elections.
Marine Le Pen has so far not being able to gather those signatures. Following the party’s request to abolish the requirement for transparency of the signatures, State Council has decided to refer the case to the Supreme Constitutional Council, which should hand down its ruling on 22 Febraury.
La Croix leads with a front page editorial, rallying against the euthanasia legislation featured in the Socialist Party’s program. The Catholic daily makes a passionate appeal against the socialists’ initiative, saying that “deciding in favour of euthanasia is to admit
a defeat”.
And finally, the sports daily L’Equipe leads with the interview of the newly-appointed Paris Saint Germain’s football club manager, Carlo Ancelotty. I am cautious about Marseille…. says the newly-appointed Italian manager of the Parisian club. He admits that Olympique Marseille and its manager Didier Deschamps could be a formidable obstacle on the way to winning the Ligue 1 championship.
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