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ca0b66dce3c45be975596ed2ad7abe8d	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-employers-idUKKBN1711LM?edition-redirect=uk	France can reap rewards from Brexit, elections: business lobby chief	France can reap rewards from Brexit, elections: business lobby chief By Simon Carraud, Emmanuel Jarry3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The head of the main French bosses’ group expects an investment boost from the election of either Francois Fillon or Emmanuel Macron as president in May as companies with spending on hold for the result combine with a Brexit-led influx. Slideshow ( 2 images ) MEDEF chief Pierre Gattaz said, however, that an unexpected win by Marine Le Pen, the National Front leader, would lead to strategies that are “stupid, absurd and dangerous”. “The election of Francois Fillon or Emmanuel Macron would be a motive to come to France, or to stay,” he told Reuters in an interview. “The French elections can also bring some extra benefits to potentially attract those disappointed with Brexit,” he said, referring to firms considering shifting their base from Britain as it leaves the European Union. Le Pen wants to quit the European Union and the euro and lower the retirement age. She would also tax imports and foreign workers. Opinion polls show that she has little chance of winning, but in light of other electoral shocks in the past year, and given that she is likely to reach the second-round run-off vote on May 7, uncertainty remains. Gattaz, who is chairman of his family’s electronics business, said Fillon’s program was the best for business in his view. The Republicans’ candidate plans to cut public spending by 100 billion euros ($107.42 billion) over the next five years, cut company taxes, raise the retirement age and abolish the 35-hour restriction on the working week. As for Macron, who is about 8 or 9 percentage points ahead of Fillon in the opinion polls, Gattaz said the independent centrist’s program “goes in the right direction,” but that parts of it remained unclear. “There are areas of imprecision such as with regard to retirement and unemployment insurance,” he said. “We’d like to see how it adds up overall. We are talking about hundreds of millions here and there, even several billion.” Macron’s spending cut plans are more modest than Fillon’s at 60 billion euros, and he would also launch 50 billion worth of public spending that Gattaz says would be better used in the hands of private enterprise. Nevertheless, the ex-investment banker, who as economy minister was instrumental in the pro-business reforms of Socialist President Francois Hollande, is part of a “reformist left” which Gattaz said had been a positive development of the Hollande years. Gattaz, who met all three of the main candidates at a business forum earlier this week, said Le Pen’s policies were abhorrent to him and would unleash a “hurricane”. “It’s a defeatist strategy,” the 57-year-old said. “It’s saying we are too weak. That’s unacceptable to me. The world is waiting for France. If you don’t go there, forget full employment, you are turning in on yourself... It’s a stupid, absurd, dangerous strategy.” For a graphic on French election, click here Additional reporting by Myriam Rivet and Michel Rose; Writing by Andrew Callus; editing by John Irish/Jeremy GauntOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
9e21bdb9f1e3875c70d68e9043738c8d	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-fillon-merkel-idUSKBN14417E	EU must talk to war criminals to end Syrian crisis, says France's Fillon	EU must talk to war criminals to end Syrian crisis, says France's Fillon By Robin Emmott3 Min Read BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Francois Fillon, the conservative candidate seen as most likely to win next year’s French presidential election, said on Thursday that Western policy on Syria had failed and Europe had to talk to those responsible for war crimes to end the killing. Francois Fillon, member of Les Republicains political party and 2017 presidential candidate of the French centre-right visits the chirurgical clinic Marie Lannelongue in Plessis-Robinson, southwest of Paris, France, December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann After meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of European center-right parties in Brussels for talks, Fillon said Europe’s efforts to stop the Syria conflict had shown “indignation”, but this in itself never saved lives and would not stop the slaughter. “I told European leaders that what we are forced to concede today is that Western diplomacy and in particular European diplomacy has failed,” Fillon, a former prime minister, told reporters in Brussels, dismissing the option of a U.S. military intervention. “The other option is a strong European diplomatic initiative to bring around the table all those who can stop this conflict including those who have committed war crimes today,” he said. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, has said the bombardment by Russian-supported Syrian government forces and their allies in the assault on Aleppo “most likely constitutes war crimes” Fillon’s comments go against present French policy that wants those responsible for war crimes to face justice. He spoke just as President Francois Hollande arrived in Brussels for a European leaders summit. Hollande has blamed Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, of escalating the five-year conflict and called on all sides to return to the negotiating table. But Fillon’s comments are in tune with some in the French establishment who accuse Hollande of pursuing an American-aligned agenda which weakens Europe as a whole. Under Fillon’s premiership, Paris closed its embassy in Damascus in 2012, two years after he traveled to Syria to meet Assad to promote bilateral ties. He has previously proposed restoring some diplomatic links with Assad, although he has said the Syrian leader cannot be a long-term solution. Fillon has said Russia does not constitute a security threat and that ties should be mended including by lifting European sanctions on Moscow. “I simply have a lot of respect for Russia. I’ve always said whether Russia’s leader is called Vladimir, Boris or Igor, he is the leader of the biggest country in the world. Europe must have a long-term strategy with Russia and not just act emotionally,” he told journalists on Thursday. Additioanl reporting by Sophie Louet and John Irish; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Richard BalmforthOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
6bdcca29c2c47feb87007cba9cde7aa1	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-fn-debt-idUSKBN15J0OD	Le Pen's French debt plan would trigger default, S&P tells Economist	Le Pen's French debt plan would trigger default, S&P tells Economist By Reuters Staff2 Min Read Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, attends the 2-day FN political rally to launch the presidential campaign in Lyon, France, February 4, 2017. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot PARIS (Reuters) - France would default on its sovereign debt if it unilaterally converted its euro-denominated obligations into new francs following a National Front election victory, a senior executive at ratings agency Standard & Poor’s told The Economist. “There is no ambiguity here,” Moritz Kraemer, S&P’s head of sovereign ratings, said in a letter published in the weekly magazine’s latest edition. “If an issuer does not adhere to the contractual obligations to its creditors, including payment in the currency stipulated, (we) would declare a default,” Kraemer wrote. “Our current AA rating on France suggests, however, that such a turn of events is unlikely.” FN leader Marine Le Pen, predicted by most polls to get through to the presidential election’s second round in May, has pledged to take France out of the euro and convert its debt into a new currency. She launched her campaign at a rally on Saturday. Rival ratings agency Moody’s has concluded that such a move “might technically count as a default”, The Economist had reported in a previous edition in mid-January. Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Mark TrevelyanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
92979d12988e42764fbc2bb8b31835c3	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN17L0MY	Macron hangs on to lead in French election, Le Pen's camp rows with Brussels	Macron hangs on to lead in French election, Le Pen's camp rows with Brussels By Richard Balmforth, Sarah White5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Centrist Emmanuel Macron clung on to his status as favorite to win France’s presidential election in a four-way race that is too close to call, as the camp of far-right challenger Marine Le Pen ramped up its eurosceptic rhetoric in a row with Brussels. A closely-watched Cevipof opinion poll published on Wednesday showed frontrunners Macron and Le Pen both losing some momentum ahead of Sunday’s first round, and conservative Francois Fillon and far-left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon still in contention for the second round run-off. With millions of French voters still undecided or planning to abstain, the vote is the most unpredictable in France in decades and investors are nervous about potential last-minute surprises that could trigger market turmoil. Le Pen and Melenchon, who both pitch themselves as defenders of French workers, say they could take France out of the European Union and the euro currency. Banks have requisitioned their staff to be at their desks through the night on Sunday to enable them to respond fast to the outcome. Le Pen has pressed hard her anti-immigration, anti-globalisation message as she seeks to mobilize voters. As she prepared for the last big rally of her campaign in the Mediterranean city of Marseille, her camp became embroiled in an angry Twitter exchange with the European Commission. Reacting to Le Pen’s refusal to appear on France’s TF1 television channel on Tuesday unless the EU’s yellow-starred blue flag was removed, the Commission tweeted: “Proud of our flag, a symbol of unity, solidarity and harmony between the people of Europe. Let’s not hide it.” Related CoverageMacron? Le Pen? Fillon? Melenchon? Which duel for the presidency?Le Pen's FN party calls EU flag 'oligarchic rag' Le Pen’s deputy Florian Philippot fired back: “You’ll see, we’ll soon be sticking your oligarchic rag in the cupboard.” The election race for a successor to the deeply unpopular Francois Hollande has become increasingly tense as the gap between the leading candidates shrinks. SECURITY IN FOCUS The Cevipof poll of 11,601 people showed first round support for Le Pen falling 2.5 percentage points since early April to 22.5 percent and backing for Macron down 2 points to 23 percent. Melenchon, a firebrand left-winger who has surged in recent weeks, was on 19 percent, while Fillon, whose campaign has been hurt by a financial scandal, received 19.5 percent of support. Macron would win a head-to-head contest against National Front chief Le Pen, the poll showed. Slideshow ( 10 images ) Another poll, a daily survey by Opinionway, gave similar projections to Cevipof for the top candidates and projected Macron beating Le Pen in the May 7 second round by 65 percent to 35. Abstention, a key factor adding to uncertainty over the outcome of the first round, was seen at 28 percent, Cevipof’s survey found - near a record level that helped Marine’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, make it to the runoff in 2002. Another poll, conducted by BVA, showed Macron taking 24 percent of the vote in the first round, one point more than Le Pen, with Fillon and Melenchon tied on 19 percent. Slideshow ( 10 images ) The BVA poll showed abstentions at between 20 and 24 percent. Fillon, 63, an ex-prime minister whose campaign was derailed by an embezzlement inquiry targeting him, his wife and two of his children, got last-minute public endorsements from ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy and ex-prime minister Alain Juppe - two men he beat to win the presidential ticket of his party, The Republicans. Fillon, who says he is victim of a “dirty tricks” campaign, said in comments reported by Le Parisien newspaper that he would work to ensure France’s institutions better protected the confidentiality of sensitive information. For large parts of the campaign, sleaze allegations have overshadowed hot button themes like unemployment and how to revive France’s sluggish economy. However, security and tackling the threat posed by Islamist militants has returned to the fore after the arrest of two men in Marseille on Tuesday suspected of plotting an imminent attack. The Paris prosecutor said on Tuesday that a video linked to the two Frenchmen and intercepted in early April had featured a machine gun placed on a table as well as a newspaper which had one of the presidential candidates on the front page. A source close to the investigation said on Wednesday that the candidate featured on the newspaper cutting was Fillon. France’s internal intelligence agency had warned the main candidates of a threat, campaign officials said. Additional reporting by Matthias Blamont, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Ingrid Melander, Emmanuel Jarry, Sophie Louet and Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Richard Lough and Adrian CroftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
68b73bb899b66e4b6ad6d14ac3b6fc27	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN17U0UQ	Holocaust comments drag on Le Pen's French presidential bid	Holocaust comments drag on Le Pen's French presidential bid By Maya Nikolaeva, John Irish5 Min Read PARIS/CHATELLERAULT, France (Reuters) - Marine Le Pen’s bid to defy the odds and win the French presidency risked a setback on Friday when her designated stand-in as National Front party leader stood down to defend himself against charges he shares the views of Holocaust deniers. After an intense day of campaigning ahead of a May 7 run-off vote in which both the far-right’s Le Pen and her centrist opponent Emmanuel Macron were carried back to the events of World War Two, surveys continued to show the independent Macron well ahead. But in a couple of potential blows to the centrist favorite, defeated far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon stopped short of endorsing him, despite telling his faithful not to vote for Le Pen. Election graphic: http: //tmsnrt.rs/2p6zUPE First round election graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2lPduBG And another loser from the first round, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, endorsed Le Pen, as expected. The abrupt departure of Jean-Francois Jalkh from the National Front (FN) party leadership before he had even taken on the job raised ghosts of the FN’s past and revived a furor sparked by Le Pen’s father when he called the Nazi gas chambers a “detail” of history. Related CoveragePoland chides France's Macron for backing tougher line on WarsawZidane warns against Le Pen in France election run-offSee more stories The renewed controversy threatens moves by Le Pen, who expelled her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, from the party two years ago, to cleanse the FN’s image of xenophobic and anti-semitic associations and make it more palatable to a broader electorate. “There comes a time when the women and men of France must open their eyes to where the National Front comes from,” Macron’s campaign director Richard Ferrand said. The presidential contest has blown apart traditional party loyalties, presenting voters with a stark choice between a resurgent far right, once a pariah in French politics, and a man whose political movement is less than a year old and who has never held elected office. It sets Macron’s enthusiasm for the European Union and call for pro-business reforms to boost growth against Le Pen’s desire for France to close its borders to immigrants, unwind EU institutions and restrict imports to protect jobs. Most opinion polls show him winning next Sunday, with 60 percent or more of the vote, a slightly smaller margin than a week ago. Jalkh, a long-time ally of Le Pen senior who founded the National Front, was one of 35 FN members elected to parliament in the mid-1980s. He had been due to take over as interim party chief, a post Marine Le Pen has vacated to focus on the presidential race. Slideshow ( 11 images ) FN officials said Jalkh denies the allegations linking him to Holocaust deniers, and Le Pen herself later told BFM TV “there is no one in the leadership of the National Front who defends this sort of thesis”. At issue are comments attributed to Jalkh in a conversation with a researcher in 2005 about the work of a professor convicted more than once for questioning the scale of Jewish extermination in Nazi gas chambers during World War Two. Also unearthed was a 1991 report that said Jalkh attended a rally held by supporters of Marshal Philippe Petain, French wartime leader and Nazi collaborator, in July of that year. Le Pen’s father has been convicted of inciting racial hatred for his remarks on the Holocaust, and referred to them himself as recently as 2015. Slideshow ( 11 images ) GAY MARRIAGE JIBE A thorn in her side, the 88 year-old has refused to be silent as his daughter bids for power. He courted controversy again on Friday, saying a remembrance ceremony for a policeman killed last week by an attacker in Paris “exalted” the concept of gay marriage by giving the policeman’s male partner the stage to speak in his memory. Marine Le Pen attended the state ceremony with other political figures including Macron, and distanced herself from her father’s comment on Friday. “I felt it was a very dignified ceremony and I was very moved by the speech of his partner,” she said. As Le Pen and her party grappled with the latest turn of events, Macron had troubles too. Melenchon, who came fourth in the election with about one on five votes of which about 40 percent are expected to back Macron, stopped short of endorsing him in a video released on YouTube. Fringe right-wing candidate Dupont-Aignan, meanwhile, gave his backing to Le Pen as expected. He gathered 4.7 percent of the first round vote. Macron on Friday campaigned at a village preserved as a monument to inhabitants killed by German SS soldiers in 1944. “Deciding not to remember is to take the risk of repeating history,” the 39-year-old said in Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges in central France, a thinly veiled attack on Le Pen for the anti-immigrant policies he says are fuelling divisions in French society. Macron later gave a speech in Chatellerault, western France, taking his election battle to rural areas where disgruntled farmers have increasingly shied away from politicians or turned to the far-right following years of crisis. Additional reporting by Cyril Camu; Writing by Brian Love; Editing by Andrew Callus and Andrew HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
38866487281db7962b99e56869c14d5c	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN183003	Macron wins French presidency, to sighs of relief in Europe	Macron wins French presidency, to sighs of relief in Europe By Mathieu Rosemain, Matthias Blamont9 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Emmanuel Macron was elected French president on Sunday with a business-friendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union. The centrist’s emphatic victory, which also smashed the dominance of France’s mainstream parties, will bring huge relief to European allies who had feared another populist upheaval to follow Britain’s vote to quit the EU and Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president. With virtually all votes counted, Macron had topped 66 percent against just under 34 percent for Le Pen - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage points that pre-election surveys had suggested. Even so, it was a record performance for the National Front, a party whose anti-immigrant policies once made it a pariah, and underlined the scale of the divisions that Macron must now try to heal. After winning the first round two weeks ago, Macron had been accused of behaving as if he was already president. On Sunday night, with victory finally sealed, he was much more solemn. “I know the divisions in our nation, which have led some to vote for the extremes. I respect them,” Macron said in an address at his campaign headquarters, shown live on television. “I know the anger, the anxiety, the doubts that very many of you have also expressed. It’s my responsibility to hear them,” he said. “I will work to recreate the link between Europe and its peoples, between Europe and citizens.” Later he strode alone almost grimly through the courtyard of the Louvre Palace in central Paris to the strains of the EU anthem, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, not breaking into a smile until he mounted the stage of his victory rally to the cheers of his partying supporters. His immediate challenge will be to secure a majority in next month’s parliamentary election for a political movement that is barely a year old, rebranded as La Republique En Marche (“Onward the Republic”), in order to implement his program. EUROPE DEFENDED Outgoing president Francois Hollande, who brought Macron into politics, said the result “confirms that a very large majority of our fellow citizens wanted to unite around the values of the Republic and show their attachment to the European Union”. Related CoverageFrance's Le Pen says National Front to be overhauled after election defeatMacron the mould-breaker - France's youngest leader since NapoleonSee more stories Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, told Macron: “I am delighted that the ideas you defended of a strong and progressive Europe, which protects all its citizens, will be those that you will carry into your presidency.” Macron spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with whom he hopes to revitalize the Franco-German axis at the heart of the EU, saying he planned to visit Berlin shortly. Trump tweeted his congratulations on Macron’s “big win”, saying he looked forward to working with him. Chinese President Xi Jinping said China was willing to help push Sino-French ties to a higher level, according to state news agency Xinhua. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also congratulated Macron. The euro currency EUR=EBS, which had been rising for two weeks as the prospect receded that France would elect an anti-EU president, topped $1.10 in early Asian trading for the first time since the U.S. elections, before easing back. [FRX/] “Fading political risk in France adds to the chance that euro zone economic growth can surprise to the upside this year,” said Holger Schmieding, an analyst at Berenberg Bank. Macron will become France’s youngest leader since Napoleon. A 39-year-old former investment banker, he served for two years as economy minister under Hollande but has never previously held elected office. Le Pen, 48, said she had also offered her congratulations. But she defiantly claimed the mantle of France’s main opposition in calling on “all patriots to join us” in constituting a “new political force”. Her tally was almost double the score that her father Jean-Marie, the last far-right candidate to make the presidential runoff, achieved in 2002, when he was trounced by the conservative Jacques Chirac. Her high-spending, anti-globalisation “France-first” policies may have unnerved financial markets but they appealed to many poorer members of society against a background of high unemployment, social tensions and security concerns. Slideshow ( 31 images ) RESHAPING THE LANDSCAPE Despite having served briefly in Hollande’s deeply unpopular Socialist government, Macron managed to portray himself as the man to revive France’s fortunes by recasting a political landscape moulded by the left-right divisions of the past century. “I’ve liked his youth and his vision from the start,” said Katia Dieudonné, a 35-year-old immigrant from Haiti who brought her two children to Macron’s victory rally. “He stands for the change I’ve wanted since I arrived in France in 1985 - openness, diversity, without stigmatizing anyone ... I’ve voted for the left in the past and been disappointed.” Macron’s team successfully skirted several attempts to derail his campaign - by hacking its communications and distributing purportedly leaked documents - that were reminiscent of the hacking of Democratic Party communications during Hillary Clinton’s U.S. election campaign. Slideshow ( 31 images ) Allegations by Macron’s camp that a massive computer hack had compromised emails added last-minute drama on Friday night, just as official campaigning was ending. While Macron sees France’s way forward in boosting the competitiveness of an open economy, Le Pen wanted to shield French workers by closing borders, quitting the EU’s common currency, the euro, radically loosening the bloc and scrapping trade deals. Macron will become the eighth - and youngest - president of France’s Fifth Republic when he moves into the Elysee Palace after his inauguration next weekend. Opinion surveys taken before the second round suggested that his fledgling movement, despite being barely a year old, had a fighting chance of securing the majority he needed. He plans to blend a big reduction in public spending and a relaxation of labor laws with greater investment in training and a gradual reform of the unwieldy pension system. A European integrationist and pro-NATO, he is orthodox in foreign and defense policy and shows no sign of wishing to change France’s traditional alliances or reshape its military and peacekeeping roles in the Middle East and Africa. NEW GENERATION His election also represents a long-awaited generational change in French politics that have been dominated by the same faces for years. He will be the youngest leader in the current Group of Seven (G7) major nations and has elicited comparisons with youthful leaders past and present, from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to British ex-premier Tony Blair and even the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy. But any idea of a brave new political dawn will be tempered by an abstention rate on Sunday of around 25 percent, the highest this century, and by a record share of blank or spoiled ballots - submitted by more than 11 percent of those who did vote. Many of those will have been supporters of the far-left maverick Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose high-spending, anti-EU, anti-globalisation platform had many similarities with Le Pen’s. Melenchon took 19 percent in coming fourth in the first round of the election, and pointedly refused to endorse Macron for the runoff. France’s biggest labor union, the CFDT, welcomed Macron’s victory but said the National Front’s score was still worryingly high. “Now, all the anxieties expressed at the ballot by a part of the electorate must be heard,” it said in a statement. “The feeling of being disenfranchised, of injustice, and even abandonment is present among a large number of our citizens.” The more radical leftist CGT union called for a demonstration on Monday against “liberal” economic policies. Like Macron, Le Pen will now have to work to try to convert her presidential result into parliamentary seats, in a two-round system that has in the past encouraged voters to cast ballots tactically to keep her out. She has worked for years to soften the xenophobic associations that clung to the National Front under her father, going so far as to expel him from the party he founded. On Sunday night, her deputy Florian Philippot distanced the movement even further from him by saying the new, reconstituted party would not be called “National Front”. Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander, Andrew Callus, Marina Depetris, Bate Felix, Sybille de la Hamaide, Mathieu Rosemain, Sarah White, Matthias Blamont, Julien Pretot, Geert de Clercq, Adrian Croft, Leigh Thomas, Helen Reid, Tim Hepher, Jemima Kelly, Maya Nikolaeva, Dominique Vidalon, Cyril Altmeyer and Gus Trompiz; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Paul TaitOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
188b55a6099c2493d4d30c64d0184ed6	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-juppe/france-is-not-the-u-s-presidential-hopeful-juppes-camp-says-idUSKBN1343I6	'France is not the U.S.,' presidential hopeful Juppe's camp says	'France is not the U.S.,' presidential hopeful Juppe's camp says By Ingrid Melander3 Min Read BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - “The French never vote like the Americans,” a politician told a rally for presidential favorite Alain Juppe on Wednesday as France wondered if it would be the next country to prove the opinion polls wrong. Slideshow ( 2 images ) Juppe, mayor of the southwest city of Bordeaux and a former prime minister, has topped the polls for months. Surveys predict he will win both a primary later in November to be the center-right’s candidate and the presidential election in six months. But after pollsters failed to predict U.S. voters would make Donald Trump their country’s 45th president, like their British colleagues who got the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU wrong, France has started bracing for a possible surprise next year. “Juppe is ahead in polls and he will also win. The French are not like the Americans, we’re not crazy,” Juppe supporter Mbacoye Balde, 35, told Reuters at the Bordeaux rally. Nearby, another Juppe supporter carried a banner reading “Ne vous Trumpez pas” a French play on words with Trump’s name that meant “Don’t make a mistake.” “We’ve always been cautious about polls, we’ve always said one should not get carried away and it was not in the bag,” Virginie Calmels, Juppe’s deputy in Bordeaux and one of his campaign spokespersons, said of his strong ratings. But she added: “It’s not quite the same in France and in the United States.” Unlike in the United States for the Trump vote, pollsters in France have recently tended to overestimate support for the anti-immigration National Front (FN), she said. The far-right party won no region in last year’s local elections, despite forecasts it would get at least one. But its leader Marine Le Pen is another strong candidate in the presidential election and is expected to be one of the two contestants to make it into the runoff round - possibly against Juppe himself. Juppe told the rally that, if elected, he would “obviously be available for dialogue with President Trump” but spent much of his speech warning against populism, saying inclusiveness and hope were the answer. Juppe is campaigning on a moderate platform more to the center than the law-and-order strategy of main rival Nicolas Sarkozy, who was France’s president in 2007-2012 and has courted controversy with his hard line on immigration and Islam. Without mentioning Sarkozy by name, Juppe said: “Beware the false answers and bad solutions ... I say ‘no’ to divisiveness, ‘no’ to demagoguery that pit the French against one another.” “I want the optimistic France to lift up the sad France,” he said, just days ahead of the two-round primary on November 20 and 27 where he will compete against Sarkozy and five other candidates for the center-right’s nomination. Additional reporting by Marina Depetris; Editing by Tom HeneghanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
70232a7e63b1f8e0be4333d7f67f3563	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-lepen-idUSKBN1610XQ?il=0	Le Pen top aide put under formal investigation	Le Pen top aide put under formal investigation By Reuters Staff3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - The chief of staff of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was put under formal investigation on Wednesday after a day of questioning over the alleged misuse of EU funds to pay parliamentary assistants, a judicial source said. Slideshow ( 3 images ) Catherine Griset was taken into custody for questioning along with Le Pen’s bodyguard Thierry Legier, who was later released without being put under investigation, according to the source. In reaction to the news, Le Pen said that she formally denied any wrongdoing in a case that she said was being used to undermine her campaign. “There is a very big risk of the justice system being manipulated. I think that today the justice system is not doing its work with a cool head, impartiality and independently. Everything indicates so,” Le Pen said. The case has landed her in the spotlight alongside another leading candidate, Francois Fillon, a right-winger being investigated over public funds he paid to his wife and children as parliamentary assistants. Wary that her image and lead in polls of voting intentions could be hurt, Le Pen on Wednesday said she was convinced voters would not fall for what her lawyer Marcel Ceccaldi said was manipulation designed to destabilize her. “The French can tell the difference between genuine scandals and political dirty tricks,” Le Pen, who has previously denied any wrongdoing in the affair, told reporters. Griset and Legier are key figures in an investigation opened following demands by the European Parliament that Le Pen repay money she is accused of wrongly paying the two. Le Pen is consistently tipped in opinion polls to win the April 23 first round of the two-round race but she is also tipped to lose the two-way runoff ballot on May 7 - to either Fillon or another independent candidate, the centrist Emmanuel Macron. Wednesday’s detentions followed a police raid on Monday on Le Pen’s National Front party headquarters on the western edge of Paris, while she was abroad. Fillon’s poll ratings fell after the scandal concerning him surfaced in late January but they have since steadied and he is more or less neck-to-neck with Macron for the other slot in the May 7 duel. Reporting by Gerard Bon and Chine Labbe; Writing by Brian Love and Leigh Thomas; editing by John Irish and Dominic EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
337b0bb990ebaa3b657b83328297b00d	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-macron-analysis-idUSKCN11W14F	Knives out for young pretender Macron in French presidential race	Knives out for young pretender Macron in French presidential race By Michel Rose6 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Inside the election war rooms of Paris, French politicians on both left and right are waking up to the threat Emmanuel Macron poses ahead of next year’s presidential election and stepping up attacks on the fresh-faced former economy minister. Outgoing French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron attends a news conference after his resignation, at Bercy Finance Ministry in Paris, France, August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo Macron quit President Francois Hollande’s government last month, pledging to “transform France” and taking the most concrete step so far towards a presidential bid he has not yet made official. Government and opposition politicians have branded the 38-year-old former M&A banker a “traitor” and “populist light”. With poll after poll showing far-right leader Marine Le Pen assured of getting to the second round but losing the runoff in May to whoever faces her, Socialists and conservatives realize Macron’s pitch for the middle ground could cost them the remaining place. “Macron is a danger for us,” a government minister said on condition of anonymity. “He’s going to steal votes on the left and the right, although he can’t possibly do more than 18 percent and reach the second round himself.” Former prime minister Alain Juppé, the leading candidate in the center-right’s primaries, called Macron “Brutus” after his resignation from Hollande’s government, and also has reason to fear him, even if his entourage plays down that threat. “There’s a window for him if (former president) Nicolas Sarkozy wins the primaries and Hollande is not a candidate,” Juppé’s campaign chief Gilles Boyer told Reuters. “But he’s prisoner of events beyond his control.” Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, close advisors within the “En Marche!” political movement Macron created last April say the backlash has failed to tarnish his public image. His popularity jumped four points after his resignation, according to an Odoxa poll published this month, with 45 percent of respondents considering he would make a good president, the second-highest score after Juppé. In one scenario tested in an Elabe poll that assumes Sarkozy, not Juppé, is the conservative champion, Macron is seen coming third in the first round with 18 percent, one point behind Sarkozy, who would just manage to reach the runoff. PRACTICAL CHALLENGES But Macron has very practical challenges to tackle. With only a dozen permanent staff, people in the movement say they need to hire another half a dozen by mid-October. Never having been elected, Macron cannot count on public funding for a presidential campaign like candidates backed by established parties, and needs to raise funds which under French law are capped at 7,500 euros per person per year. Critics also point out the movement’s 80,000 members were able to sign up for free, and do not amount to the army of grassroots activists other candidates will mobilize. Macron nonetheless managed to deploy hundreds of volunteers this summer in 50 cities in a door-to-door campaign meant to collect voters’ grievances. The small team is now preparing a “diagnosis” for the country - struggling with high unemployment and which has endured several deadly Islamist attacks - that Macron said he would unveil in October in three rallies outside Paris, the first in Strasbourg on Oct. 4. “We want people to think ‘that’s the first time a guy tells me what I’m suffering from’,” a source in his inner circle said. A “transformation plan” with 6-7 priorities will follow mid-November. Only then will he consider whether to run for president, the advisor said. DIRTY TRICKS Meanwhile, Hollande’s party officials are working behind the scenes to strongarm lawmakers into not rallying behind the former minister, Macron’s advisors said, with Socialist Party chief Jean-Christophe Cambadelis threatening to expel Macron supporters from the party. Asked about the allegations, a party official said according to party rules members should support the party’s official candidate in any election. Several French and European policymakers canceled their appearance at a gathering of European Social Democrats in Lyon where Macron was invited to speak at the weekend. Investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine said Hollande had asked Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to turn down the invitation. The French president’s office denied it had intervened and Renzi’s office said he was never scheduled to attend the Lyon summit. Macron’s team say if Hollande’s ratings, the lowest for a president in France’s post-war history, fail to pick up by the end of the year, more politicians will rally behind him. One recruit to his cause is Daniel Cohn-Bendit, hero of the 1968 student protests, who said Macron was best placed to prevent a Sarkozy-Le Pen runoff next year. Macron’s advisor said finding enough candidates to run in France’s 577 parliament constituencies in June would not be a problem either. “En Marche can field candidates everywhere. Our goal is to build something for the long term.” Others are not so sure. “He’s a brilliant guy,” junior minister Jean-Vincent Placé said. “But he is deluding himself on who will really support him and where he will be in two or three months.” Additional reporting by Emmanuel Jarry, Ingrid Melander, Jean-Baptiste Vey, Elizabeth Pineau and Mathieu Rosemain in Paris; Crispian Balmer in Rome; Editing by Andrew Callus and Janet LawrenceOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
8a9316c4d9b99eee55bd215a6eebac8b	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-macron-programme-fact-idUSKBN17G19H	Factbox: Emmanuel Macron's presidential election policies	Factbox: Emmanuel Macron's presidential election policies By Reuters Staff5 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Here are some of the key points in the program of Emmanuel Macron, a centrist candidate in France’s presidential election on April 23 and May 7. Emmanuel Macron, head of the political movement En Marche !, or Onwards !, and candidate for the 2017 French presidential election, visits the INRIA in Montbonnot-Saint-Martin, mnear Grenoble, France, April 14, 2017. REUTERS/Robert Pratta Macron, a former investment banker running as an independent centrist, is favorite to win the unpredictable race in a May runoff. Eye-catchers for voters include local housing tax exemptions worth 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion), reimbursement of the full cost of cultural shows, dentures and hearing aids, and cuts in social welfare levies for low earners coupled with tax breaks for their employers. Flagship proposals involve the politically sensitive merger of myriad public- and private-sector retirement pension systems as well as a merger of unemployment benefit systems, which currently differ for regular wage-earners and the self-employed. Broad financial targets include keeping France’s budget deficit below the EU-mandated 3 percent of GDP, lowering the jobless rate to 7 percent by the end of his potential five-year term from around 10 percent now, an investment plan of 50 billion euros and public spending savings seen reaching 60 billion annually by the end of the mandate. Among other key ideas: - Corporate tax would be cut from 33 to 25 percent. - The CICE tax credit system for firms would be converted into permanent payroll tax breaks for low-wage workers. - The 35-hour legal work week would remain but negotiation of real work hours would be left to company level. - Low-wage earners would be exempted from certain social welfare levies, a measure that would put an extra month’s wage per year in the employee’s pocket. PUBLIC INVESTMENT Macron’s plan calls for 50 billion euros of public investment over five years, of which: - 15 billion for training/changing skill-sets to find jobs. - 15 billion on energy/environment targets: exit within 5 years from coal-based energy production, shift towards alternative, renewable energy sources, rise in carbon tax. - 5 billion in farm sector financing for environment-friendly projects, local production cooperatives and aid during price crises. - 5 billion for transport and local infrastructure, with a focus on renovating old train lines rather than building new ones. - 5 billion euros on health sector, including better reimbursement of glasses, dentures and hearing aids, plus move away from wasteful medicine packages that contain more pills than a patient needs. - 5 billion on modernization, computerization of public administration. SAVINGS IN PUBLIC SPENDING A target of 60 billion euros for savings on spending is so far more of a projection than a plan, premised on 10 billion euros of unemployment benefit savings generated by a drop in the jobless rate to 7 percent. Macron also sees savings of 15 billion euros in public health spending due to greater efficiency. Another 25 billion is predicted to come from public service modernization, of which a small part would come from payroll cost falls due to a 120,000 cut in headcount, of which 50,000 will be in the central civil service. The remaining 10 billion would come from cuts in local authorities spending, including a 70,000 reduction in headcount. SECURITY/LAW AND ORDER Build 15,000 extra prison places, hire 10,000 police, raise defense budget to 2 percent of GDP, from just under 1.8 percent in 2016. Introduction of on-the-spot fines for drug use and issue orders banning gang-leaders from certain neighborhoods. CULTURE/EDUCATION Halve number of early primary school pupils to 12 per class in 12,000 low-income zones, with teachers given a bonus of 3,000 euros a year to work in such areas. All 18-year-olds to get a 500 euro “culture pass” to spend on cinema, theater and concert tickets. Mobile phone use to be banned on school premises for pupils aged up to about 15 years. IMMIGRATION/INTEGRATION Strict application of secular policy in public life. No ban on Muslim veil for university students, as envisaged by some candidates. Asylum requests processed within six months. State subsidy of 15,000 euros over 3 years for firms that hire people in 200 low-income neighborhoods. GOVERNANCE Reduce number of lawmakers by a third in both the Senate and National Assembly. Reduce by at least a quarter the number of provincial local authorities. Ban hiring of family-members as assistants of lawmakers. Elected mandates limited to maximum three of same kind. Ban on consulting activity for people holding elected office. ($1 = 0.9473 euros) Compiled by Brian Love; editing by Michel Rose and Adrian CroftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
be5c75a1f540826f284de32d7a05cf8c	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-poll-idUSKBN13C191	French conservative primaries race narrows, Juppe still ahead	French conservative primaries race narrows, Juppe still ahead By Reuters Staff3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France’s former prime minister Alain Juppe is defending a shrinking lead in the race to win the conservatives’ nomination for next year’s presidential election, two opinion polls showed on Thursday. Slideshow ( 4 images ) Whoever wins the two-round primary on Nov. 20 and Nov. 27 has a strong chance of becoming France’s next president. Juppe, 71, has for months been favorite. But he has been struggling to fire up voters and has this week been losing some ground to his chief rival, former president Nicolas Sarkozy, and another ex-prime minister, Francois Fillon. A poll by Cevipof and Ipsos-Sopra Steria showed Juppe scoring 36 percent of votes in Sunday’s opening round of the Les Republicains party primary, five percentage points less than in October. It showed Sarkozy, on 29 percent, would qualify for a head-to-head second round runoff against Juppe a week later. Juppe was seen beating Sarkozy in the runoff with 57 percent of votes to his rival’s 43 percent, with his lead still comfortable but 3 points smaller than last month. Fillon, whose potential first-round score has risen 10 points in just one month, has become a possible threat to the frontrunners but was not seen making it to the two-way run-off. The seven contenders in Sunday’s first round of Les Republicains party primary were set to face off in the last of three televised debates later on Thursday. Related CoverageFrench conservative primaries race tightening, Juppe still ahead: pollJean-Marie Le Pen wins right to stay honorary president of France's National Front Socialist President Francois Hollande is struggling with low poll ratings and has yet to say whether he will run for a second term next spring. The opinion poll confirmed the widely held expectation that the left would be out of contention, and far-right leader Marine Le Pen would be the likely opponent of any center-right candidate in the decisive runoff in May. The Internet-based survey was based on more than 18,000 voters, with the questions on the primaries narrowed to 1,337 people certain to take part. A separate Ifop-Fiducial poll for Sud Radio showed Juppe getting 31 percent of votes in the first round of the primaries on Sunday, versus 30 percent for Sarkozy and 27 percent for Fillon. That poll was carried out online Nov. 10-17 with 744 people certain to vote in the primaries. Juppe’s rating is down 2 points since a survey carried out Oct. 31-Nov. 14, Sarkozy’s unchanged and Fillon up 7 points. Juppe would win the second round versus Sarkozy with 57 percent of the votes, the poll showed. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Writing by Brian Love and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Michel Rose and Mark TrevelyanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
1bd93ddd888a64b5e2c1b954f81412d9	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-unions-idUSKBN18J15X	French unions urge Macron not to rush through labor reform	French unions urge Macron not to rush through labor reform By Jean-Baptiste Vey, Michel Rose4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French unions urged President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday not to try to hustle through his labor reform plans this summer, in contrast with calls from the main employers’ group for swift measures to reinforce rising business optimism. Macron’s meetings with unions and employers were a first crucial test of his commitment to carry out labor reforms which he sees as vital to reviving an economy bedeviled by high unemployment, but which are opposed on the Left. The head of France’s biggest moderate trade union said he had urged the newly-elected Macron to leave more time for discussion and not to try to rush his reforms through by executive decree this summer - a strategy which Macron has suggested he might follow. “I asked him not to do it hurriedly, to do it without rushing, that the idea should not be to wrap everything up by the end of summer, end of August,” CFDT leader Laurent Berger told reporters. The centrist leader wants to make hiring and firing easier by giving more powers to companies to reach in-house deals on working time, for instance, and capping severance packages awarded by industrial tribunals. Against a background of 9.6 percent unemployment, the pro-business, Europe-minded Macron has made a loosening of labor market regulations his biggest economic priority for his first year in office. During the roller-coaster campaign, Macron said he would seek parliament’s approval over the summer for powers to push through legislation by means of executive decree. Slideshow ( 7 images ) But speaking after his own meeting with Macron later on, the head of the more militant CGT union said the president seemed willing to take more time than initially planned. “The timetable seems to have changed,” Philippe Martinez told reporters. “It seems to me that the short time frame that was planned is not as short as I had understood,” the leader of the CGT, which led weeks of sometimes violent protests last year against reforms by former Socialist President Francois Hollande, added. A source close to Macron told Reuters it would be up to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, a former right-wing mayor, and Labour Minister Muriel Penicaud to decide on the timetable. “The president is very keen to respect the allocation of tasks between a president who sets the course while the prime minister and the labor minister establish a working timetable and discuss measures in detail,” the source said. But Macron was also reminded of French businesses’ pressing demands for a more flexible labor market. Slideshow ( 7 images ) “The labor market reform must be tackled quickly. It’s essential to be quick on this major French problem,” Pierre Gattaz, the head of the Medef group of employers, said, adding that speed was essential to give confidence to investors. The head of the smaller CPME group of employers said Macron was aiming to hold talks with unions until about mid-June, with a parliament vote to give him powers to legislate via decrees over the summer and a final parliament vote in September. French companies have shown signs of growing optimism since Macron’s election on May 7. In a widely watched survey published on Tuesday, the French private sector was shown to have grown at the fastest pace in six years in May, with companies mentioning Macron’s election as a reason for optimism. That chimed with a separate survey from the official Insee statistics office which showed morale in the industrial sector at its highest level since June 2011. Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Adrian CroftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
65edbf83a10fa461aabd9eae1ba2473b	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-women-idUSKBN19911E	France elects record number of women to parliament	France elects record number of women to parliament By Jemima Kelly4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France voted a record number of women into parliament, election results showed on Monday, after President Emmanuel Macron’s victorious Republic on the Move (LREM) party fielded a gender-balanced candidate list. Of the 577 newly elected lawmakers, 223 were female, beating the previous record of 155 set after the last election. That sent France leapfrogging from 64th to 17th in the world rankings of female parliamentary representation and to 6th place in Europe, overtaking Britain and Germany, according to Inter-parliamentary Union data compiled at the start of June. LREM, which won an overwhelming majority in Sunday’s ballot, had the highest proportion of women elected, at 47 percent. “For the first time under the (postwar) Fifth Republic, the National Assembly will be deeply renewed - more diverse, younger,” the party’s acting president, Catherine Barbaroux, said. “But above all, allow me to rejoice, because this is a historic event for the representation of women in the National Assembly.” Female representation in the National Assembly has risen steadily, from 12.3 percent at the 2002 election to 38.6 percent this time. But most parties still put up more men for election, despite France having a system in which a party’s funding is restricted if women do not make up at least 49 percent of candidates. Female candidates have also tended to stand in constituencies they are unlikely to win, keeping the numbers of women who make it to the Palais-Bourbon low. “(Macron’s) En Marche (party)... proactively decided to give winning seats to women,” said 34-year-old Brune Poirson, who beat the far-right National Front to be elected in the Vaucluse district in southeastern France. “This is a really bold move.” “Normally political parties allocate women seats that are almost impossible to win, so they can say ‘hey, we have as many female candidates as male,’” added Poirson, a parliamentary novice with masters degrees in political science from Harvard and the London School of Economics. Poirson decided to become a candidate in January when Macron sent a video to LREM members urging more women to put themselves forward. “(Macron)... said: this is your responsibility as well - we need you. It was very powerful, and it really worked,” she told Reuters. “LONG WAY TO GO” A culture with misogynistic tendencies has long characterized the upper echelons of French politics, but there have been signs of the veil being lifted on acts that might previously have gone unreported. Last year Denis Baupin resigned as vice-president of the National Assembly after being accused of sexual harassment by fellow politicians, while then finance minister Michel Sapin admitted behaving inappropriately toward a female journalist. Laurianne Rossi, elected to the Hauts-de-Seine district on the outskirts of Paris, said even with the increase in female lawmakers, it would take time to make a real difference. “There is still a long way to go before we get real equality...(but) the arrival of so many more women at the National Assembly will really help,” said Rossi, a 33-year-old former assistant to a Socialist senator. Frances Scott, founder of Britain’s 50:50 Parliament, a cross-party group campaigning for gender balance in the legislature, said the result in France would spur parties in other countries to field more women candidates. Britain set its own record in elections on June 8, with 30 percent of parliamentary seats going to women. “It looks like France is leading the way in terms of this democratic imperative,” said Scott. “The evidence suggests that having more women in parliament leads to more informed and more responsive decision-making. It leads to a better parliament.” (This story has been refiled to correct number in second paragraph to 223 from 233.) Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Additional reporting by Sybille de la Hamaide; Editing by Andrew Callus and John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
74ead4c6187d122cedd139f20f4d0952	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-electricity/low-river-levels-to-affect-french-nuclear-power-generation-from-august-8-edf-idUSKCN1UT06M	Low river levels to affect French nuclear power generation from August 8: EDF	Low river levels to affect French nuclear power generation from August 8: EDF By Reuters Staff1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French utility EDF may curb power generation at its 3,000 megawatt Chooz nuclear reactor in the north of France due to the low flow rate of the Meuse river which it uses to cool the two reactors at the plant. “Due to flow forecasts of Meuse river, production restrictions are likely to affect EDF’s nuclear generating fleet on Chooz production units starting Thursday August 8,” the company said. EDF’s use of water from rivers as coolant is regulated by law to protect plant and animal life. It is obliged to reduce output during hot weather when water temperatures rise, or when river levels are low. The utility has been forced to cut output and halt production at several reactors this summer due to two spells of heatwave and prolonged dry weather that has reduced river levels. Reporting by Bate Felix, Editing by Sarah WhiteOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
4b7f8cd52698965db5038e337ec98e61	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-energy-coal/france-to-stop-credits-for-coal-projects-in-developing-countries-idUKKCN0JB17J20141127?edition-redirect=uk	France to stop credits for coal projects in developing countries	France to stop credits for coal projects in developing countries By Reuters Staff2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France will eliminate export credits for energy projects in developing countries which involve coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, President Francois Hollande said on Thursday. The European Union is phasing out subsidies for domestic coal plants by 2018 in line with its efforts to take a global lead in the fight against climate change. But an EU policy paper seen by Reuters in June said European makers of coal-fired power plants such as France’s Alstom should get financial help to export the equipment, flying in the face of environmental opposition to any form of subsidy for coal. “Eventually, subsidies to all fossil fuels should be phased out,” Hollande said at France’s annual environmental conference. “We are eliminating all export credits in the support that we give to developing countries whenever coal is used.” The paper prepared by officials from the European Commission trade department before the new administration was sworn in said export credits, or preferential loans to help cover exports costs, should be continued for the most modern coal plant technology. Paris will host a United Nations conference on climate change in December 2015 where it hopes to reach a binding agreement to cut global CO2 emissions. Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Ingrid MelanderOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
8155e42619c88360366e8d169e0be2a3	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-energy/france-sets-2050-carbon-neutral-target-with-new-law-idUSKCN1TS30B	France sets 2050 carbon-neutral target with new law	France sets 2050 carbon-neutral target with new law By Bate Felix3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French lawmakers on Thursday voted into law the first article in a climate and energy package that sets goals for France to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and go carbon-neutral by 2050 in line with the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Slideshow ( 2 images ) French Ecology Minister Francois de Rugy said in a statement that the adoption of the law places France among the first countries to adopt concrete measures to go carbon neutral. Britain announced on June 12 it would enshrine a new commitment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 into law, marking a first among G7 nations facing increasingly severe impacts from the climate crisis. At a European Union summit on June 20, a push by most EU nations for the bloc to go carbon-neutral by 2050 was dropped to a footnote after resistance from Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Environmental groups and France’s own independent climate advisory council (HCC) have warned it was falling short of its own previously set targets to curb emissions and was doing little to change consumer behavior. De Rugy said in the statement that quantified emission reduction targets have been written into the new law. “At a time when we are confronted by climate change with phenomena such as the current heatwave, we reaffirmed our ambitions with this law... by inscribing in marble the principle of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050,” he said. The law raises France’s target of reducing consumption of fossil fuels by 40% by 2030 compared with a 30% target cut today. It also includes targets to speed the development of low carbon energies and renewable hydrogen. A key measure of the bill aims to cut emissions and reduce energy consumption from around 7.2 million badly insulated homes in France and would push proprietors through incentives to carry out renovation works by 2028. The housing sector accounts for around 45% of energy consumption in France and a quarter of carbon emissions. The measures in the climate and energy bill will give the government the legal muscle to force France’s remaining four coal-fired power plants to close by 2022 by imposing restrictive emissions targets on them. It would also provide a roadmap for the application of France’s 2019-2028 medium-term energy policy known as the PPE. Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
d89685c970612aa454ab96e0739bde93	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-environment/france-sets-out-plans-to-tackle-deforestation-idUKKCN1NJ0O1?edition-redirect=uk	France sets out plans to tackle deforestation	France sets out plans to tackle deforestation By Reuters Staff3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France set out plans on Wednesday to tackle deforestation around the world, saying it would look to curb imports of products such as palm oil, soy, and beef which it said contributed to the problem of forest areas disappearing. Slideshow ( 2 images ) Palm oil, a type of vegetable oil used in confectionery and other goods, is controversial because of the environmental impact of clearing forests to make way for plantations. The majority of the world’s palm oil comes from Malaysia and Indonesia, where deforestation has threatened orangutan populations. In a joint statement, five French ministries said that in between 1990 and 2015, the world’s forest area fell by 129 million hectares (319 million acres) -- eight times the size of France’s mainland forest. “(This lead) to an 11 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions and significant consequences in terms of preserving biodiversity and natural habitats,” they said. “European countries bear an important responsibility, since a third of this deforestation is due to the consumption of agricultural products by the countries of the European Union.” Companies and governments - including the European Union - made multiple pledges to halt deforestation in recent years but progress in dealing with the issue has been slow. France proposed 17 measures aimed at putting a halt by 2030 to deforestation caused by imports of non-sustainable forest or agricultural products. These include financial aid to encourage developing countries to respect non-deforestation criteria, the launch of a “zero deforestation” label for consumers by 2020 and a push next year for a European policy on imports posing a risk for forests. As part of a renewable energy bill adopted on Tuesday, the EU said it would phase out biofuels containing feedstock that contribute to deforestation by 2030. France echoed this measure on Wednesday. In May, France had allowed a limited use of palm oil at Total’s planned La Mede biofuel refinery, a move that prompted an outcry from environment activists and farmers who said the palm oil would be imported. Former environment minister Nicolas Hulot said soon after his appointment last year he would limit the use of palm oil in biofuels in France to reduce deforestation in the countries of origin, raising outcry from Indonesia and Malaysia, but he took no concrete measures to do so. Reporting by Simon Carraud; additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Yves Clarisse/Sudip Kar-Gupta and Marie-Louise GumuchianOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
0e501fab4899559ef494413100f40d70	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-eu-macron-germany/merkel-welcomes-a-lot-of-material-from-macron-on-eu-reform-idUSKCN1C21GI	Merkel welcomes "a lot of material" from Macron on EU reform	Merkel welcomes "a lot of material" from Macron on EU reform By Michael Nienaber4 Min Read BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech on EU reform, her spokesman said on Wednesday, without giving details on how she would go about improving the way the European Union is run. French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech to set out plans for reforming the European Union at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, September 26, 2017. REUTERS/Ludovic Marin/Pool Macron offered a sweeping vision for Europe’s future in a speech on Tuesday, calling for the EU to cooperate more closely on defense, immigration, tax and social policy, and for the single currency bloc to have its own budget. Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said Berlin shared Macron’s view that the EU needs reforms and that his speech contained “a lot of material” for debate on the issue. “This discussion is necessary and sensible,” Seibert told a regular news conference, adding that EU leaders would have a chance to talk at a meeting in Estonia on Thursday. Macron said he hoped his ideas would be taken into account in Germany’s coalition building negotiations, talks that are not expected to begin until mid-October and may take months. His proposals drew mixed reaction from Germany’s pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens, both possible partners in the coalition government Merkel will form after her center-right CDU/CSU bloc won a Sept. 24 election albeit with a much reduced share of parliamentary seats. In a sign that her Christian Democratic Union might block Macron’s plan for a joint euro zone budget, Eckhardt Rehberg, the most senior CDU member on parliament’s budget committee, said: “The problem in Europe is not a lack of money.” Rehberg pointed to existing instruments to boost investments such as the EU budget, the so-called Juncker fund (EFSI), the euro zone bailout fund (ESM) and European Investment Bank (EIB). “And not to forget the ECB’s monetary policy,” he added. Rehberg said it was more important to discuss how existing funds could be used better and that member states must implement their own reforms to increase competitiveness and clean up their budgets. “The taxpayers of other countries cannot relieve them of this duty,” Rehberg told Reuters. Germany’s biggest industry association, BDI, called Macron’s proposals “courageous but not uncontroversial”. “Europe now needs speed in the reform discussion,” BDI chief Joachim Lang said. Macron’s proposals for a joint euro zone budget and a common finance minister were at least worth discussing, Lang added. The influential economic institute Ifo described Macron’s speech as an invitation for Germany to join the “brainstorming” about the EU’s future. “A stronger EU would certainly make sense in the areas of foreign, defense and trade policy,” Ifo head Clemens Fuest said. “But Macron’s plans for the euro zone are wrong, from my point of view.” Fuest said the euro zone’s problems would not be solved by creating a finance minister or budget for the 19-member bloc. “It would be more important to ensure more stability in the financial sector and to reconcile liability and control in economic and financial policy,” he said. Fuest was among a group of top German and French economists who issued a joint statement on Wednesday made calling on Paris and Berlin to shift their stances on EU reforms. Additonal reporting by Paul Carrel and Andreas Rinke; Writing by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Robin PomeroyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
10159873fad2afde90f50717ea45f0aa	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-facebook-tax/facebook-to-pay-104-million-euros-in-back-taxes-in-france-media-idUSKBN25K0S5	Facebook to pay more than $110 million in back taxes in France	Facebook to pay more than $110 million in back taxes in France By Mathieu Rosemain3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Facebook's FB.O French subsidiary has agreed to pay more than 100 million euros ($118 million) in back taxes, including a penalty, after a ten-year audit of its accounts by French tax authorities, the company said on Monday. FILE PHOTO: A 3D-printed Facebook logo is seen placed on a keyboard in this illustration taken March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration France, which is pushing hard to overhaul international tax rules on digital companies such as Facebook, Alphabet's Google GOOGL.O, Apple AAPL.O and Amazon AMZN.O, has said the big tech groups pay too little tax in the country where they have significant sales. Current international tax rules legally allow companies to funnel sales generated in local markets in Europe to their regional headquarters. Some of the tech companies, including Facebook, have European or international headquarters based in countries with comparatively low corporate tax rates, such as Ireland. A Facebook spokesman said French tax authorities carried out an audit on Facebook’s accounts over 2009-2018 period, which resulted in an agreement by the subsidiary to pay a total 106 million euros. The Facebook spokesman did not elaborate further on the details of the agreement. France’s tax administration also did not give more details. Facebook’s spokesman also said that since 2018 the company had decided to include its advertising sales in France in its annual accounts covering France. As a result, Facebook’s total net revenue almost doubled in 2019 from a year earlier to 747 million euros, a copy of Facebook France’s 2019 annual accounts, filed with France’s companies registry and seen by Reuters, showed. Facebook France, which employs 208 people, refers to the French tax audit report in its 2019 annual accounts, saying it amounted to a tax adjustment of about 105 million euros. This includes a penalty of about 22 million, the annual accounts showed. French magazine Capital was first to report the payment of back taxes. Facebook’s spokesman said that the company paid 8.5 million euros of income taxes in 2019 in France, an increase of almost 50% from a year earlier. “We take our tax obligations seriously, pay the taxes we owe in all markets where we operate and work closely with tax authorities around the world to make sure we abide by all applicable tax laws and resolve any litigation,” he said. ($1 = 0.8447 euros) Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and additional reporting by Leigh Thomas; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Alison Williams and Jane MerrimanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
0e3bdd0d23a518b1e81b330970d3b674	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-femicide/hundreds-protest-in-paris-against-deadly-domestic-violence-idUSKCN1U10MW	Hundreds protest in Paris against deadly domestic violence	Hundreds protest in Paris against deadly domestic violence By Reuters Staff3 Min Read Slideshow ( 10 images ) PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters gathered in central Paris on Saturday to raise awareness and demand tougher action on femicides in France. Yelling “Enough” and carrying signs reading “Stop femicides” or “The planet needs women alive”, the crowd took to the Place de la Republique square as part of the demonstration organized by various women’s rights NGOs to protest the rate of femicides, the killing of a woman by a man because of her gender. The women of all ages and a few men also observed 74 seconds of silence in tribute to the 74 women allegedly killed in France so far this year, according to data collected by Facebook group “Femicides par compagnons ou ex” (Femicides by partners or exes). It said four were killed this week. According to Interior Ministry figures, 130 women were allegedly killed in 2017 by their husband or partner, up from 123 in 2016. “It’s a massacre,” Julie Gayet, a French actress and partner of former French President Francois Hollande, said at the protest. “We need to raise awareness on what’s happening today, which means that despite society’s evolution, there’s a step backward, and even more women are dying today.” In an interview with weekly Journal du Dimanche, French Gender Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa said the government in September will launch a broad consultation to draft new measures to prevent femicides. The consultation will involve the interior and justice ministers, advocacy groups and other NGOs. She said the government will also launch campaigns to make sure domestic violence cases are reported. “No country has reached zero femicides, but I think that if we all work on it, we can collectively do better on the long run,” she said. In light of the numbers shared by “Femicides par compagnons ou ex”, women’s advocacy groups in France have grown more vocal in recent days demanding the government stick to its gender equality promise and act decisively against domestic violence. Several feminist campaigners published an op-ed piece in French newspaper Le Monde on Friday demanding the government take measures such as suspending child custody from men suspected of killing their wife or partner, and opening more shelter spaces for victims of domestic violence. Reporting by Marine Pelletier and Ardee Napolitano; Edited by Inti Landauro and David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
702d7447101d4c903a6da3c68fd22711	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-fiat-chrysler-diesel-idUSKBN16S2D8	French prosecutor opens Fiat Chrysler emissions investigation	French prosecutor opens Fiat Chrysler emissions investigation By Reuters Staff2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French prosecutors have opened a formal investigation into Fiat Chrysler over allegations that the carmaker cheated in diesel emission tests, a judicial source said on Tuesday. A screen displays the ticker information for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV at the post where it's traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “I can confirm that a judicial investigation has been opened into aggravated cheating,” the source said. The source said the Paris prosecutor had opened the investigation on March 15, after the finance ministry’s DGCCRF consumer affairs and anti-fraud body had referred the case to the courts. A Fiat spokesman said the company took note of the investigation and reiterated that its diesel vehicles fully comply with emission regulations, as confirmed by the Italian Transport Ministry. The spokesman said the company would continue to collaborate with the authorities on all investigations and was confident the matter would be fully resolved. Following Volkswagen's VOWG_p.DE admission in 2015 of cheating on U.S. diesel emission tests, several European countries launched their own tests on vehicle emissions. They found on-road nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions more than 10 times above regulatory limits - for some GM, Renault and Fiat Chrysler models - and widespread use of devices that reduce exhaust treatment in some conditions. The French test program, overseen by a commission set up by Environment Minister Segolene Royale, has so far led to four carmakers - Volkswagen, Renault, Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group - being referred to prosecutors. Fiat Chrysler vehicles were among those that recorded the highest NOx emissions under non-standard testing regimes designed to detect banned engine software cheats. “The investigation into Fiat is a natural consequence of the Royal commission’s findings,” said Frederik-Karel Canoy, a Paris-based lawyer who represents a group of Fiat owners pursuing related claims against the carmaker in French courts. Reporting by Chine Labbe and Laurence Frost; Writing by GV De Clercq; Editing by Greg Mahlich/Ruth PitchfordOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
f9e644c21470c3c557dd8d3176f35e97	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-fire-idUSKCN1VC0G9	At least one killed after fire breaks out in hospital near Paris	At least one killed after fire breaks out in hospital near Paris By Reuters Staff1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - At least one person was killed and eight injured after a fire broke out overnight in a hospital complex on the outskirts of Paris, authorities said on Thursday. The fire at the Henri Mondor hospital in Creteil broke out late on Wednesday night and was eventually brought under control in the early hours of Thursday morning. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. “The fire in the residential block within the Henri Mondor hospital complex has now been brought under control thanks to the intervention of firefighters,” Paris public hospitals chief Martin Hirsch said on Twitter. “We regret to say that there has been one death,” he said. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Paul TaitOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2098e8322d97d9b1eb97e4e5112d9e94	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-g7-climatechange-idUSKBN18K0XY	France's Macron to try to convince Trump to back Paris accords: diplomats	France's Macron to try to convince Trump to back Paris accords: diplomats By Reuters Staff2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron will seek to convince his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Thursday to stick to a global deal to combat climate change ahead of a Group of Seven leaders where there is currently no consensus on the matter, diplomats said. French President Emmanuel Macron attends a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 23, 2017. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer Trump, who doubts climate change is man-made and made a campaign pledge to “cancel” the 2015 Paris Agreement, has postponed a planned decision on whether to stay or leave that had been due before the May 26-27 summit in Italy. A newcomer to international diplomacy, Macron travels on Thursday to Brussels for a NATO summit before heading to Sicily for the G7 summit that also includes Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan and Canada. Ahead of NATO, he will meet Trump for the first time for an informal lunch that will immediately test his diplomatic skills given the unpredictable nature of the U.S. leader and France’s desire to ensure the U.S. does not renege on the climate deal. “What’s at stake is to be firm on the Paris accord,” said a senior French diplomat, adding that Macron would put his case to Trump in the face-to-face talks in the Belgian capital. “We don’t want the U.S. to pull out because it would be a very bad signal and lead others to pull out.” Diplomats said there had been no agreement on these issues ahead of the G7 gathering, meaning the leaders will seek to strike an accord amongst themselves. “The U.S. did not accept (a common position) during the ministerial talks ... so one of the key issues is to try and obtain the commitment from all the G7 members and the Americans,” said a second diplomat. He added that there was a possibility the Italian presidency could issue a separate statement on climate change if Trump did not endorse the Paris agreement. “It’s strange because normally the final communique is agreed 10 days before, but here we will probably be negotiating overnight between Friday and Saturday.” Reporting by John Irish and Marine Pennetier; editing by Michel RoseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
92450779a343f18ca5ba455581b4954e	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-germany-arms/france-germany-closing-in-on-arms-exports-pact-idUSKBN1W42I7	France, Germany closing in on arms exports pact	France, Germany closing in on arms exports pact By Tangi Salaün, Leigh Thomas3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France and Germany said on Thursday they were close to an agreement on how to remove obstacles to exporting weapons manufactured in joint programs, after French firms called for easing German export restrictions. Slideshow ( 6 images ) German curbs on arms exports to non-European Union or non-NATO countries have been a thorn in bilateral co-operation for years. Germany’s SPD party, part of the ruling coalition, is particularly concerned about the trade. French firms, such as Nexter and Arquus, previously known as Renault Trucks Defense, say the restrictions have hindered deals and have urged the authorities to allow the export of equipment with German parts without requiring Berlin’s green light. Germany’s ruling coalition agreed in 2018 to ban arms sales to countries involved in conflicts unless a waiver is granted. Germany extended by six months an embargo on sales to parties in the Yemen conflict, seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. “On the issue of weapons’ exports, we have a narrow dialogue with our German friends,” French Finance and Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told a news conference with his German counterpart. “We have found an agreement on this subject,” he said, without elaborating. A French finance ministry official said a deal was in the works and was expected to be signed in coming weeks. Speaking alongside Le Maire, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said talks were continuing. “We have had very constructive discussions and I am confident they will lead to a good result,” he said. “But an announcement will be made only when it is ready and agreed to by all.” French diplomatic sources have said plans for a new warplane system and new tank, both to be developed by Paris and Berlin, could be undermined if there was no shift in German policy. French economic newspaper La Tribune reported on Monday that a deal had been reached with Berlin. In response to the La Tribune report the French Armed Forces Ministry said talks had not been concluded. The ministry declined to comment on Le Maire’s remarks on Thursday. The newspaper had quoted sources saying Germany would not block French exports to Saudi Arabia and other countries provided equipment was made with less than 20% German components. Additional reporting by Thomas Escritt in Berlin; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Edmund BlairOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
ef50dab3f9ad5987a46c802fbbc93e46	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-germany-cloud/france-germany-step-up-effort-to-build-rivals-to-u-s-cloud-firms-idUSKBN1X81YO	France, Germany step up effort to build rivals to U.S. cloud firms	France, Germany step up effort to build rivals to U.S. cloud firms By Reuters Staff2 Min Read FILE PHOTO: French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire shakes the hand of German Minister of Economy and Energy Peter Altmaier before a meeting on the development and production of European batteries in Paris, France, May 2, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo PARIS (Reuters) - France and Germany are stepping up efforts to foster homegrown rivals to U.S. tech giants Amazon and Microsoft in cloud computing, according to a joint statement by the countries’ finance ministries issued on Tuesday. Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google dominate the field of data storage worldwide, with a combined market share of more than 50%, according to market research. This dominance is raising concerns in Europe that sensitive corporate data could be spied on in the wake of the adoption of the U.S. CLOUD Act of 2018 and in the absence of any major competitors, with the exception of China’s Alibaba. Amazon’s cloud division has a $600 million contract with the CIA, while Microsoft recently won a $10 billion cloud computing contract with the Pentagon. “We want to establish a safe and sovereign European data infrastructure, including data warehouses, data pooling and develop data interoperability,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a statement. Le Maire’s German counterpart, Peter Altmaier, also cited the need to “regain our digital sovereignty.” The two governments pledged to hold a workshop before the end of November. The aim is to present proposals for a “European data infrastructure” in early 2020, according to the joint statement. The initiative follows a call that Le Maire made earlier this month to French tech companies Dassault Systemes and OVH to come up with plans to break the dominance of U.S. cloud computing firms. Previous French government-supported attempts to build a so-called “sovereign” cloud to store the most sensitive data held by companies and states failed. Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
501c388584d1b7ca151cae51dc5bbdac	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-germany-economy-data/france-and-germany-to-cooperate-on-sovereign-data-infrastructure-minister-idUSKBN1W41NP	France and Germany to cooperate on 'sovereign data infrastructure': minister	France and Germany to cooperate on 'sovereign data infrastructure': minister By Reuters Staff1 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - Germany and France intend to pool efforts to create a “sovereign data infrastructure” for Europe so that the continent’s data can be stored and processed at home rather than in the United States or China, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said. Altmaier, in Paris for talks with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, said talks that had been underway on the matter in Germany would shortly conclude and their outcome could be combined with exploratory work taking place in France. “There are ever larger volumes of data that have to be stored and processed, and because of a lack of capacity in Europe this often happens in the U.S. or China,” he said. “So we have both decided to create a European alternative for a sovereign data infrastructure.” Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Michelle MartinOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
4efc9538f491bf78c6cd9a7889654803	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-germany-economy-olaf/we-want-to-set-a-price-for-carbon-german-finance-minister-idUSKBN1W41LN	We want to set a price for carbon: German finance minister	We want to set a price for carbon: German finance minister By Reuters Staff1 Min Read German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz attends a joint news conference with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier after a meeting in Paris, France, September 19, 2019. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes PARIS (Reuters) - Germany plans to introduce a carbon pricing model that will encourage companies to invest in technologies that use less carbon dioxide, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday. Scholz, in Paris for talks with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, was speaking ahead of negotiations later on Thursday between the parties in Germany’s ruling coalition over what has been billed as a major package of climate protection policies. “We are determined to find a away to ensure that investments are used to ensure less CO2 is emitted and achieve a good legal framework that supports this,” he said. “We are also determined to find a way to ensure that with the pricing model we can contribute to making it economical and reasonable to invest in C02 saving technologies.” Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Michelle MartinOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
ca1c64d0125be37b7b4b7077f24ce7a0	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-google-antitrust-exclusive/exclusive-french-antitrust-investigators-say-google-breached-its-orders-on-talks-with-news-publishers-sources-idUSKBN2AN268?il=0&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social	Exclusive: French antitrust investigators say Google breached its orders on talks with news publishers - sources	Exclusive: French antitrust investigators say Google breached its orders on talks with news publishers - sources By Mathieu Rosemain3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French antitrust investigators have accused Alphabet Inc’s Google of failing to comply with the state competition authority’s orders on how to conduct negotiations with news publishers over copyright, two sources who read the investigators’ report said. Slideshow ( 2 images ) In the 93-page report, known as a statement of objections, the investigators wrote that Google’s failure to comply was of an exceptionally serious nature, the sources said. This comes amid complaints by French news publishers that Google failed to hold talks with them in good faith to find an agreement. The same publishers were not part of the $76 million three-year deal signed between the U.S. firm and and a group of 121 publications, as Reuters reported earlier this month. The agreement was presented as a major step forward by both Google and the publishers who signed it, but left many publications infuriated. The French competition authority can impose fines of up to 10% of sales on firms it deems in violation of its rules. Google’s annual sales amounted to about $183 billion in 2020. The investigative report is a key element in the authority’s sanction process, but it is up to the watchdog’s board, led by Isabelle de Silva, to decide whether to issue a penalty. The biggest penalty ever levied by the French antitrust authority was against iPhone maker Apple Inc last year, with a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.34 billion) fine for anti-competitive behaviour towards its distribution and retail network. A spokeswoman for the competition authority declined to comment. In response to a Reuters request for comment, Google said in a statement: “Our priority is to comply with the law, and to continue to negotiate with publishers in good faith, as evidenced by the agreements we have made with publishers in the past few months.” “We will now review the statement of objections, and will work closely with the French competition authority,” it said. The French report on Google’s negotiating tactics comes at a time when countries around the world are pushing U.S. internet giants such as Google and Facebook Inc to share more revenue with news publishers. The issue gained international attention this week when Facebook banned all news from its services in Australia over a draft law there that would mandate arbitration. According to the two sources, the French investigators say Google did not comply with requests from the watchdog to start negotiations with the publishers within a three-month deadline, and to provide all data the watchdog felt publishers needed. The publishers’ lobby that signed the deal with Google, APIG, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. French news agency AFP, and another media lobby group, SEPM - both of which did not sign a deal with Google - did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters reached its own global deal with Google in January on terms that have not been publicly disclosed. ($1 = 0.8228 euro) Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris; Editing by Peter Graff and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
b018871344d72957996684e04b950b14	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-health-fungicide/france-to-ban-widely-used-crop-fungicide-over-health-concerns-idUKKCN1SY1VI?edition-redirect=uk	France to ban widely used crop fungicide over health concerns	France to ban widely used crop fungicide over health concerns By Reuters Staff2 Min Read Slideshow ( 3 images ) PARIS (Reuters) - France’s health and safety regulator has decided to ban a widely used crop fungicide after classifying it as a so-called endocrine disruptor posing risks for humans and the environment. The ANSES agency said on Tuesday it was withdrawing the marketing license for 76 products containing epoxiconazole, which is commonly applied to protect cereal and sugar beet fields in France, the European Union’s biggest crop producer. “The agency’s conclusion is that epoxiconazole is an endocrine disruptor for humans and non-target organisms, and represents a preoccupying level of danger for humans and the environment,” it said in a statement. ANSES decided to review the chemical following new EU regulations concerning endocrine disruptors, which are suspected of affecting humans’ hormone systems and causing diseases including cancer, it said. A spokeswoman for the regulator said that around half of French cereals and 70% of sugar beet crops were treated with epoxiconazole-based products. There would be a transition period of around one year to allow stocks of the fungicide to be used up, after which farmers could use alternative products that exist on the market, she said. ANSES did not detail the products to be withdrawn from the market. Reporting by Gus Trompiz. Editing by Jane MerrimanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
0ad5823a45da17f5038cb5881f27aef3	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-health-test-idUSKCN0UT131	French drug trial disaster leaves one brain dead, five injured	French drug trial disaster leaves one brain dead, five injured By Matthias Blamont4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - One person has been left brain dead and five others have been hospitalized after taking part in a clinical trial in France of an experimental drug made by Portuguese drug company Bial, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Friday. In total, 90 people have taken part in the trial, taking some dosage of the drug aimed at tackling mood and anxiety issues, as well as movement coordination disorders linked to neurological issues, Touraine said. The six men aged 28 to 49 had been in good health until taking the oral medication at the Biotrial private facility that specializes in clinical trials, she said. “This is unprecedented,” Touraine told a news conference after meeting volunteers and their families in Rennes, western France. “We’ll do everything to understand what happened.” Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the case. The six men started taking the drug on Jan. 7. The brain-dead volunteer was admitted to hospital on Monday, the minister said. For three of the five others - who went in on Wednesday and Thursday - there are fears of irreversible handicap, doctor Gilles Edan said, though he still hoped that would not be the case. One of the six had no symptoms but was being carefully monitored, he said. Slideshow ( 4 images ) Testing had already been carried out on animals, including chimpanzees, starting in July, Touraine said. All trials on the drug have now been suspended and all volunteers who have taken part in the trial are being called back, the health ministry added. The medicine involved is a so-called FAAH inhibitor that works by targeting the body’s endocannabinoid system, which is also responsible for the human response to cannabis. Bial said in a statement it was committed to ensuring the wellbeing of test participants and was working with authorities to discover the cause of the injuries, adding that the clinical trial have been approved by French regulators. The company said five people, rather than six, had been hospitalized, including one left brain dead, without explaining the discrepancy with the official French figures. Cases of early-stage clinical trials going badly wrong are rare but not unheard of. In 2006, six healthy volunteers given an experimental drug in London ended up in intensive care. One was described as looking like “the elephant man” after his head ballooned. Another lost his fingertips and toes. Slideshow ( 4 images ) “INHERENT RISK” In the initial Phase I stage of clinical testing, a drug is given to healthy volunteers to see how it is handled by the body and what is the right dose to give to patients. “Undertaking Phase 1 studies is highly specialist work,” said Daniel Hawcutt, a lecturer in clinical pharmacology at Britain’s University of Liverpool. Medicines then go into larger Phase II and Phase III trials to assess their effectiveness and safety before they are finally approved for sale. Europe has strict regulations governing the conduct of clinical trials, with Phase I tests subject to particular scrutiny. But Ben Whalley, a professor of neuropharmacology at the University of Reading, said these could only minimize risks, not abolish them. “There is an inherent risk in exposing people to any new compound,” he said. The 2006 London trial led to the collapse of Germany’s TeGenero, the company developing a medicine known as TGN1412. The drug has since gone back into tests for rheumatoid arthritis and is showing promise when given at a fraction of the original dose. Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler, John Irish, Noelle Mennella; Writing by Ben Hirschler and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Michel Rose and Andrew HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
59fefbc8fa0ff3c4820415fce43b6172	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-health/in-rural-france-macron-seeks-remedy-for-healthcare-deserts-idUSKCN1NJ0HX	In rural France, Macron seeks remedy for 'healthcare deserts'	In rural France, Macron seeks remedy for 'healthcare deserts' By Matthias Blamont7 Min Read LAVAL, France (Reuters) - When Joelle Dupas falls ill, she goes to a medical center in her home town in rural western France where all 12 doctors have come out of retirement. Retired French doctor Jean-Francois Rechner, 67, measures the blood pressure of a patient during a consultation at the 'Service Medical de Proximite' clinic in Laval, France, November 8, 2018. Picture taken November 8, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe The 66-year-old tried for months to find a doctor after retiring to Laval, a quiet town of 50,000 residents surrounded by rolling fields. Her search ended at the simple center managed by the 12 veteran doctors, aged between 67 and 70, on the ground floor of an apartment bloc. “You need to wait at least a year to get an appointment with an ophthalmologist,” Dupas, a former secretary and salesperson, told Reuters in the waiting room. “It was not like this years ago.” The Service Médical de Proximité (SMP), where each doctor works a few days a month with the help of medical interns, is a local response to a national problem that has hit Laval hard. Although France enjoys a reputation for having one of the world’s best healthcare systems, it has an aging population and a shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas. In Laval, only one in five residents is believed to have a family doctor, according to local professionals. President Emmanuel Macron has put rural France at the heart of an overhaul of the healthcare system which he announced on Sept. 18, promising more money and doctors for what he called “healthcare deserts” in areas outside big cities. The reforms are an important test for Macron. Success could help reverse a fall in his popularity since he was elected in May 2017, and counter leftist criticism that he is a “president of the rich”. But with opinion polls showing healthcare is a priority for voters, failure could badly damage his presidency. “France obviously has good fundamentals when it comes to healthcare,” said Laurent Chambaud, the director of France’s School of Advanced Studies in Public Health. “But like in many other developed countries, the system, which centers around hospitals, has to reform itself to adapt to social changes.” “If it doesn’t do so in the next five to 10 years, the system will be totally saturated,” he said. FALL IN GLOBAL RANKINGS France offers universal healthcare largely financed by government through a system of national health insurance, though many people buy top-up cover. Related CoverageFactbox: Macron's plan to fix France's healthcare system When the World Health Organization conducted its only global healthcare survey in 2000, it rated France’s system the world’s best. But the aging population, tight budgets and an increase in burnout among doctors have taken a toll. France ranked only 10th in a global study published last year by the Commonwealth Fund, a private U.S. healthcare foundation. It had been ninth in the fund’s previous report in 2014, the only other time France had been included. As in neighbors Germany and Spain, and larger countries such as Australia or Canada, France also has an uneven distribution of doctors, with most attracted by work in cities where they can make more money. Some rural areas also lack hospitals, and hospital doctors staged a strike in 2016 in protest at what they considered poor working conditions and shortages. “We have been alerting authorities for decades and nothing has changed,” said Gilles Ollivier, who serves on a regional doctors’ council in Laval. “Many here live in rural areas where inhabitants, and some of them very old, find themselves in small villages where there are no shops, no post office, no schools and no doctors.” Under Macron’s plans, 400 doctors will be deployed to rural areas where coverage is thin. No hospitals will be closed and 4,000 medical assistants will be recruited to handle paperwork and make basic checks to free up doctors. The president also says he will end a system under which the number of graduates allowed to enter the medical profession each year is limited. Doing so, he hopes, will ensure there are more new doctors interested in working in rural areas. PLUGGING GAPS Laval, on the river Mayenne about 300 km (190 miles) southwest of the capital Paris, is one of the communities where the fate of Macron’s reforms will be played out. It also shows how big a challenge the centrist president faces. Slideshow ( 15 images ) The Mayenne region has 255 registered doctors per 100,000 residents, one of the lowest rates in the country, official data show. The national average is 437 and Paris has the highest rate, with more than 1,100 doctors per 100,000. In Laval, the SMP has helped plug the gaps. Fifteen months after it opened its doors, it handles more than 5,500 patients. Its doctors are regulated as others are under the French system. “I had been looking for a family doctor for years but every time I was turned down because they said general practices couldn’t take new patients,” Fatou Diaby, 30, said in the SMP’s waiting room with her two young daughters. “When I last became pregnant, I had nobody to go to except hospital emergencies, which are always packed. Here someone listens.” Mayenne authorities have tried to remedy the situation by helping doctors trained abroad, especially in eastern Europe and the Middle East, to settle in the area. Last year, a third of new doctors entering practice in Mayenne qualified outside France. “WAR ZONE” Laval’s 12-storey hospital, built in 1974, has more than 1,000 beds and admits 40,000 patients a year but has too few doctors. A lack of funds means some patients summon nurses with old-fashioned handbells. “It is true that we are experiencing some kind of depression,” said Andre-Gwenael Pors, the hospital’s director, citing understaffing, budget constraints and a proliferation of regulations in recent years. Olivier Guihery, a general practitioner who divides his time between a Laval practice and several retirement homes, said he and his colleagues sometimes work 100 hours a week with little or no time for rest or holidays. It is so tough they call it “war-zone” medicine. “We are on the verge of burning out all the time but we have no choice but to continue,” he said. Doctors who spoke to Reuters welcomed Macron’s plans to overhaul the system but also had concerns. Pors said the reforms needed to be spelled out in more detail. Ollivier, the representative of the regional doctors’ council, was wary about the recruitment of medical assistants for basic tasks. “Getting help with the paperwork is great but do we really want these assistants to take blood pressure or body temperature, like in Britain? These are highly sensitive human actions,” Ollivier said. “Many of us are skeptical. We feel like all these decisions are taken in cities and offices, away from the reality of rural areas.” Editing by Timothy HeritageOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
049fb0f35a488c5a68f91a225a4832a3	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-huawei-5g-exclusive/exclusive-france-to-allow-some-huawei-gear-in-its-5g-network-sources-idUKKBN20Z3JR?edition-redirect=uk	Exclusive: France to allow some Huawei gear in its 5G network - sources	Exclusive: France to allow some Huawei gear in its 5G network - sources By Mathieu Rosemain, Gwénaëlle Barzic4 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France will authorize the use of some of Huawei’s equipment in the rollout of its 5G network, two sources close to the matter told Reuters, despite U.S. calls to exclude the Chinese telecoms giant from the West’s next-generation communications. The French cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, is due to tell telecoms operators which equipment they are allowed to use for the deployment of their 5G network in France, but has not made public any decision. The two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said ANSSI had decided to approve the use of Huawei gear, but only for what they described as non-core parts of the network, as these pose less significant security risks. “They don’t want to ban Huawei, but the principle is: ‘Get them out of the core mobile network’,” one of the two sources said. A spokeswoman for ANSSI declined to comment. Core mobile networks carry higher surveillance risks because they incorporate more sophisticated software programs that process sensitive information such as customers’ personal data. French authorities’ decision over Huawei’s equipment is crucial for two of the country’s four telecoms operators, Bouygues Telecom and Altice Europe’s SFR, as about half of their current mobile network is made by the Chinese group. A smartphone with the Huawei and 5G network logo is seen on a PC motherboard in this illustration picture taken January 29, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration State-controlled Orange, has already chosen Huawei’s European rivals, Nokia and Ericsson, which U.S. operates have favored over Huawei. Up to now, sources close to the French telecoms industry have said they fear Huawei will be barred in practice even if no formal ban is announced. BRITAIN’S FOOTSTEPS By granting a partial authorization to Huawei, France would follow Britain’s footsteps, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson granted Huawei a limited role in the country’s 5G network. Neighboring Germany is also struggling to reach consensus on the way forward. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling conservatives back tougher rules on foreign vendors but have stopped short of an outright ban on Huawei. France is likely to follow instructions given by European Union’s industry chief Thierry Breton, who said in interviews that telecoms operators should not select “risky vendors” for strategic sites such as capital cities, military bases and nuclear plants, a separate telecoms industry source said. Without ever citing Shenzhen-based Huawei, Breton has said a “risky vendor” was a company that heavily relies on a foreign state or a state that could compel it to disclose clients’ data. ANSSI was initially due to give the first results of the screening of the 5G telecoms gear about a month ago. The cybersecurity agency’s decision was delayed because it asked operators additional questions in December, the same telecoms source said. But it also has had intense exchanges with its overseeing authority, France’s prime minister office, as well as its British and German peers, to find a common approach toward Huawei, one of the two sources close to the matter said. The Chinese group said last month that it planned to build its first European manufacturing plant in France as it seeks to ease concerns stoked by U.S. charges that Beijing could use its equipment for spying -- which it denies. Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Gwenaelle Barzic; Editing by Christian Lowe and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
645e24a762ae2af6e17adf9d2f8231ff	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-implants-pip-idUSTRE80P12V20120126	Timeline: A short history of breast implants	Timeline: A short history of breast implants By Reuters Staff4 Min Read (Reuters) - Following is a look at the history of breast implants. Jean-Claude Mas, whose company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) sparked a global health scare by using substandard silicone, was arrested Thursday. Breast implants are pockets of liquid that are placed inside a breast to increase its size or adjust its appearance. There are two main kinds, containing either saline (salt water) or silicone, a squishy gel. 1895 - Austrian-German surgeon Vincenz Czerny, known as ‘the father of plastic surgery’, performs breast reconstruction on a woman at the University of Heidelberg. 1945 - After World War Two in Japan, prostitutes catering to the tastes of the U.S. military, begin injecting industrial silicone directly into their breasts. They previously tried goats’ milk and paraffin. 1962 - Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow invent the silicone breast implant. Texan Timmie Jean Lindsey becomes the first woman to have the procedure. 1976 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates silicone breast implants, subjecting them to controls and performance standards. 1982 - The FDA places breast implants in the more rigorous class III category, because of “reports of adverse events in the medical literature.” 1991 - Jean-Claude Mas establishes Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) based in southern France, near Toulon. December 1991 - Mariann Hopkins wins $7.3 million from Dow Corning for health issues linked to her ruptured implants. More than 130 lawsuits have so far been filed against Dow Corning. January 1992 - FDA calls for a voluntary moratorium on the use of silicone gel breast implants until safety has been reviewed. -- Several countries follow the FDA’s lead including Germany, Spain, France, Austria and Italy. Saline breast implants are not affected. March 1992 - Several major medical manufacturers including Dow Corning, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Bioplasty withdraw from the silicone implant market. April 1992 - The FDA advises that silicone breast implants should only be used for reconstruction after surgery or to correct congenital deformities. May 1995 - Faced by massive lawsuits, Dow Corning files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; litigation was halted by the filing. 1996 - PIP begins selling saline-filled implants in the United States, but its failure to gain necessary pre-market approval in 2000 from the FDA to keep selling these implants cuts off that key market. 2000 - France lifts its ban on silicone implants. December 2000 - The United Kingdom bans PIP hydrogel implants given to 4,000 women since 1994, finding the manufacturer’s biological safety assessment of the product to be inadequate. 2006 - The FDA lifts its restrictions on silicone breast implants, clearing them for cosmetic use in women aged from 22. 2010 - Breast implantation is the most popular form of plastic surgery in the United States with 318,123 augmentations performed, 62 percent of which used silicone implants. March 2010 - France’s health regulator, AFSSAPS, performs an inspection of PIP’s headquarters. AFSSAPS orders the withdrawal of silicone breast implants made by PIP from the market. PIP files for bankruptcy. December 2011 - France’s health minister announces that the 30,000 French women with PIP implants should have them removed and it will pay for the operations. Venezuela, Germany and the Czech Republic also advise that implants should be removed. -- The United Kingdom does not advise women to remove the implants, but says the National Health Service will replace implants for patients to whom it had provided the surgery. January 26. 2012 - Mas and CEO Claude Couty are arrested. Sources: Reuters/FDA/PBS/MHRA Reporting by Naomi O’Leary, David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit and Alexandria Sage, ParisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
0d4ab96867d6aa43c66c45eea49b701c	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-incest-idUSKBN29S0KY	Macron says France will tighten legislation on incest	Macron says France will tighten legislation on incest By Reuters Staff3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - France will tighten its laws on incest, President Emmanuel Macron said in a series of tweets on Saturday, after publication of a book accusing a top French political commentator of abusing his stepson sparked outrage across the country. FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech to the French Bakery and Pastry Federation members next to the traditional epiphany cake, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France January 13, 2021. Francois Mori/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo Macron said on his Twitter account that France needs to adapt its laws to better protect children from sexual violence and he had asked the justice minister to chair a consultation aimed at quickly making legislative proposals. “We will go after the aggressors,” Macron said. Macron said France had already increased the statute of limitations on incest to 30 years, counted from the legal age of majority of the victim, and had tightened controls on people working with children, but he said much more needed to be done. He said that as part of current routine medical examinations for children, France would introduce sessions about incest in primary and secondary schools in order to give children a chance to talk about the issue. He also said that better psychological help for victims of incest would be made available and it would be reimbursed by social security. In recent weeks, hundreds of people have taken to social media to tell their stories of incest after the publication of the book accusing French professor and constitutional specialist Olivier Duhamel of abusing his stepson. The book was written by Duhamel’s stepdaughter Camille Kouchner, daughter of former foreign minister and founder of NGO Médecins Sans Frontières Bernard Kouchner. Duhamel resigned earlier this month from his post overseeing Sciences Po, one of France’s top universities, following publication of the book. “Being the object of personal attacks and wanting to preserve the institutions in which I work, I put an end to my functions,” he said on Twitter on Jan. 4. Neither Duhamel nor his lawyer have commented on the accusations dating back to the 1980s. Higher Education Minister Frederique Vidal has ordered an inspection at Sciences Po to determine responsibilities and potential failings. Reporting by Geert De Clercq and John Irish; Editing by David HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
4bb243e830eaa7ccfd6f4d97f4e74d88	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-lagarde-idUSTRE6BH0V020101218?edition-redirect=uk	France's Lagarde: EU rescues "violated" rules: report	France's Lagarde: EU rescues "violated" rules: report By Reuters Staff2 Min Read French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde listens to questions during a news conference as she attends the G20 meeting in Seoul, November 11, 2010. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer PARIS (Reuters) - Euro zone policymakers deliberately chose to “violate” the bloc’s rules in rescuing Greece and Ireland, closing ranks to protect the single currency area’s future, French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde was quoted as saying. The EU’s governing Lisbon Treaty places constraints on bailouts. European leaders agreed at a summit on Thursday to amend it by creating a permanent financial safety net from 2013. In comments reported on Saturday by the Wall Street Journal, Lagarde said the amendment amounted to a “major adjustment,” but that a change was necessary after the tumult of this year’s debt crisis. The Greek and Irish bailouts and the creation of a temporary European rescue fund had been “major transgressions” of the treaty. “We violated all the rules because we wanted to close ranks and really rescue the euro zone,” Lagarde was quoted as saying. “The Treaty of Lisbon was very straight-forward. No bailout.” The summit approved a two-sentence amendment to the treaty at Germany’s behest to permit the creation of a European Stability Mechanism to handle financial crises from 2013. The ESM, to replace a temporary European Financial Stability Facility created in May, will be empowered to grant loans on strict conditions to member states in distress, with private sector bondholders sharing the cost of any sovereign debt write-down on a case-by-case basis. The aim is for all 27 member states to ratify the change by end-2012. Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by John StonestreetOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
51a9bd8777eda3dfc79b5cd86ae73b35	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-lenotre/legendary-french-pastry-chef-gaston-lenotre-dies-idUSTRE5075F920090108	Legendary French pastry chef Gaston Lenotre dies	Legendary French pastry chef Gaston Lenotre dies By Estelle Shirbon3 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French pastry chef Gaston Lenotre, whose hugely successful catering business made him a household name in his country, died on Thursday at the age of 88 after a long illness, his company said. Lenotre is widely credited with rejuvenating the world of patisserie by reducing the use of sugar and flour in favor of light mousses and creams with bold new fruit flavors. “He succeeded, with his talent and his creativity, his rigor and his high standards, in raising patisserie to the rank of an art,” President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement. Paul Bocuse, one of France’s most respected chefs, said the Lenotre signature on a chocolate cake was as prestigious as the Christian Dior name on a dress. Born in Normandy in 1920, Lenotre developed a passion for baking early in life. He opened his first pastry shop in his native region in 1947 before moving to Paris 10 years later. In 1964, he expanded into catering for receptions, a business that later flourished into an international chain of chic pastry and catering outlets. The brand is now present in 12 countries including the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Lenotre opened a school for pastry chefs in 1971 in the town of Plaisir just west of Paris, which still operates today. Fittingly, the name of the town means “pleasure” in French. He celebrated news events with new cakes, like the chocolate “Concorde” which he created when Air France flew its supersonic jet for the first time, and the “Schuss” which celebrated French skiier Jean-Claude Killy’s Olympic success in 1968. Lenotre won catering contracts at some of the most high-profile events hosted in France, including the 1998 Football World Cup at which he provided meals for 800,000 fans. He opened restaurants in glamorous locations like the Elysee Pavilion on the Champs Elysees avenue in the heart of Paris. For his 80th birthday in 2000, an army of trainee chefs paid homage to Lenotre by creating a 10-meter (33-foot) high cake in the Trocadero gardens close to the Eiffel Tower. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
6c5fb47cd8899ffd0047a891e6f4ec9c	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-life-lambert/doctors-end-life-support-for-french-patient-in-landmark-right-to-die-case-idUSKCN1SQ15Q	French court says doctors must resume life support for paralyzed patient	French court says doctors must resume life support for paralyzed patient By Gilbert Reilhac4 Min Read STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - A French appeals court on Monday ordered doctors to resume giving food and water to a French quadriplegic, lawyers said, some 12 hours after medics switched off the man’s life support against his parents’ will. The fate of Vincent Lambert has renewed a fierce debate over the right to die that has split his family and the country. “The feeding and hydration of Vincent must be restarted without delay,” declared Jean Paillot, a lawyer for Lambert’s parents who launched multiple legal bids to keep his care going. “It’s a huge victory, and only the first.” The 42-year-old former psychiatric nurse has been in a vegetative state since a motorcycle accident in 2008. He has almost no consciousness, but can breath without a respirator and occasionally moves his eyes. His wife, Rachel, and some of his siblings say care should be withdrawn. But Lambert’s Catholic parents, backed by other relatives, say he should be kept alive and have launched a series of legal bids to keep his care going. His doctors in the northeastern city of Reims said earlier this month that they would start withdrawing care after all legal avenues had been exhausted. Earlier on Monday, the medical team stopped feeding Lambert food and water through a gastric tube and was administering sedatives. Lambert’s mother, Viviane, branded them “monsters”. FILE PHOTO: Judges of the European Court of Human Rights sit in the courtroom at the start of an hearing concerning the case of Vincent Lambert in Strasbourg, January 7, 2015. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler/File Photo Lambert’s parents filed a last-ditch legal bid to keep him alive at the European Court of Human Rights and appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to intervene. “LET HIM GO” The Strasbourg-based tribunal declared there was no violation of Lambert’s right to life in the medics’ decision while the French president said the decision on Lambert’s fate did not rest with him. “But it is for me to hear the emotion that has been stirred and to respond,” Macron added in a statement on Facebook. “All the medical experts have concluded that his condition is irreversible.” However, in a stunning twist, the Paris Appeal Court ruled that doctors must respect a May 3 request made by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to the French government that it prevent the euthanasia of Lambert while his case is examined. Euthanasia is illegal in France, but in 2016 a law was introduced giving terminally ill patients the right to be put into continuous deep sedation (CDS) by doctors until death. The law draws a distinction between euthanasia and CDS, making France the first country to legislate in such a way. Lambert’s case has divided opinion in France. “We cannot keep him like this, as a vegetable for decades,” said 70-year-old Parisian Marie-Laure Jean. “There have been court rulings, the doctors have given their advice. We have to let him go.” But pensioner Caroline Lorsin saw the other side: “I’m putting myself in his parents’ shoes. It must be hard for them.” Euthanasia is permitted in various forms in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg and Canada, while assisted suicide, which involves a doctor helping a patient to end their own life, is permitted in several U.S. states. Reporting by Gilbert Reilhac; Additional reporting by Emmanuel Jarry and Richard Lough; Writing by Luke Baker and Richard Lough; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
f2378c3d4c79be47ebc8100e984f9ef2	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-macron-business/in-versailles-macron-vows-to-reform-to-avoid-kings-fate-idUKKCN1PF1GH?edition-redirect=uk	In Versailles, Macron vows to reform to avoid king's fate	In Versailles, Macron vows to reform to avoid king's fate By Jean-Baptiste Vey, Michel Rose4 Min Read VERSAILLES, France (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron told dozens of the world’s most powerful executives on Monday that he would not follow the path of guillotined French royals and would continue to reform the French economy despite a sometimes violent popular revolt. French President Emmanuel Macron reacts after he delivered his new year wishes to the military during a ceremony on the Toulouse-Francazal airbase in Toulouse, France, January 17, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau For the second year running, Macron hosted corporate A-listers like Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel and JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon at a pre-Davos dinner at Versailles. Exactly 226 years after the decapitation of Louis XVI, who failed to plug the crown’s dismal finances and quell popular discontent over a sclerotic feudal society, Macron started his speech by invoking the king and his wife Marie-Antoinette. “If they met such an end, it is because they had given up on reforming,” Macron told the guests, according to his office. His office said earlier that foreign companies including medical products company Microport, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Cisco and others would announce investments in France totaling more than 600 million euros. The dinner was an opportunity to reassure investors of Macron’s resolve to reform the economy after images of protesters angry at his policies attacking public monuments, boutiques, banks and riot police were beamed around the world. “There are questions about the protests’ magnitude, about the violence, because these images are shocking for foreigners,” a source at Macron’s office said before the summit. “Last year, the summit was in a totally different dynamic, it was all about ‘France is back’. Here we’re in a tougher part of the mandate domestically and that requires more explanations,” the source added. On Monday, Macron told the business leaders the “yellow vest” movement was part of a bigger picture of middle-class angst over globalization that gave rise to Brexit in Britain, as well as the rise of populist parties in Germany or Italy. “The solution to the crisis is not to roll back what we have done in the past 18 months,” he said. Macron was elected in May 2017 against a far-right candidate on a promise to create jobs and drive growth by cutting corporate taxes, easing France’s rigid labor regulations, and developing a more skilled labor force. He began making good on those campaign pledges in a reform blitz during the first 18 months of his presidency that has impressed investors but infuriated low-paid workers, who feel he favors big business and is indifferent to their struggle to make ends meet. Over the past two months, that popular anger has been vented at protests across France. The unrest has convulsed Macron and his government and forced costly concessions. Macron is not attending the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, his office says, so that he can deal with quelling the yellow vest uprising. Below are some of the key investment pledges announced on Monday: * Microport: 350 million euros over five years to expand a Research & Development center. * Mars: 120 million euros invested in eight different sites including the Haguenau plant where M&Ms are produced. * Procter & Gamble: 50 million euro investment in a new detergent production line at its Amiens plant. * Transpod: 20 million euro investment to finance a 3-km (1.9-mile) hyperloop test line. Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey and Reuters Television; Writing by Richard Lough and Michel Rose; Editing by Catherine Evans and Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
797d1362919fb441a40152ff6ea11bb0	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-macron-nuclear/nuclear-renewables-to-help-french-co2-reduction-goals-macron-says-idUSKBN1EB0TZ?il=0	Nuclear, renewables to help French CO2 reduction goals, Macron says	Nuclear, renewables to help French CO2 reduction goals, Macron says By Reuters Staff2 Min Read PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday he would not follow Germany’s example by phasing out nuclear energy in France because his priority was to cut carbon emissions and shut down polluting coal-fired production. French President Emmanuel Macron gives a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, December 15, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Vidal “I don’t idolize nuclear energy at all. But I think you have to pick your battle. My priority in France, Europe and internationally is CO2 emissions and (global) warming,” he told France 2 television in an interview. Macron, who has worked to establish his role as a global leader since his election win in May, presided over a climate summit in Paris last week to breathe new life into a collective effort to fight climate change. But renewable energy only amounts to a tiny share of French electricity production, which is dominated by nuclear for 75 percent of it. “Nuclear is not bad for carbon emissions, it’s even the most carbon-free way to produce electricity with renewables,” Macron said. The 39-year old, who has sought to forge strong ties with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, did not show any enthusiasm for her decision to phase out nuclear energy, one of her landmark policies. “What did the Germans do when they shut all their nuclear in one go?,” Macron said. “They developed a lot of renewables but they also massively reopened thermal and coal. They worsened their CO2 footprint, it wasn’t good for the planet. So I won’t do that.” Macron said he wanted to boost the growth of renewable energy but would wait for the French nuclear watchdog’s opinion before shutting ageing nuclear reactors or upgrading others. The ASN nuclear regulator said last month it would rule on a potential lifespan extension of France’s 58 nuclear reactors - all operated by state-owned EDF - in 2020-21. “This is what we’ll base our decisions on,” Macron said. “So it’ll be rational. So in the face of that, we’ll have to shut some plants. Maybe we’ll have to modernize others,” he said. Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Adrian CroftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
d3c6251c52755d32bfb18fca40fffe40	https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-mali-conflict/france-kills-33-militants-in-mali-raid-president-idUSKBN1YP0CT	France kills 33 militants in Mali raid: president	France kills 33 militants in Mali raid: president By Reuters Staff4 Min Read ABIDJAN/BAMAKO (Reuters) - French forces killed 33 Islamist militants in Mali on Saturday using attack helicopters, ground troops and a drone, near the border with Mauritania where a group linked to al Qaeda operates, French authorities said. France's President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the inauguration of the Agora "win win" in Koumassi, Abidjan, Ivory Coast December 21, 2019. REUTERS/Luc Gnago The raid about 150 km (90 miles) northwest of Mopti in Mali targeted the same forest area where France wrongly claimed last year it had killed Amadou Koufa, one of the most senior Islamist militants being hunted by French forces in the Sahel. A spokesman for the French army’s chief of staff declined to say at this stage whether Koufa was the target this time. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the operation in a speech to the French community in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan, describing it as a major success. “This morning ... we were able to neutralize 33 terrorists, take one prisoner and free two Malian gendarmes who had been held hostage,” Macron said, a day after visiting French troops stationed in Ivory Coast. The operation took place in a different part of Mali to where 13 French soldiers died last month in a helicopter crash while tracking a militant group suspected of being linked to Islamic State. That was the biggest loss of French troops in a day since an attack in Beirut 36 years ago and raised questions about the human cost to France of its six-year campaign against Islamist insurgents in West Africa. In Saturday’s raid, soldiers aboard Tiger attack helicopters used a Reaper drone to guide them to the forest area where Koufa’s group Katiba Macina operates, French army command said. Koufa is one of the top deputies to Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of Mali’s most prominent jihadi group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which has repeatedly attacked soldiers and civilians in Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso. The Malian authorities welcomed the success of the raid. “Happy that the fight against terrorism is taking a more offensive turn,” said government spokesman Yaya Sangare in a message to Reuters. “I salute this operation, which must continue.” The United Nations, France and the United States have poured billions of dollars into stabilizing the Sahel, an arid region of West Africa south of the Sahara desert, but with little success. France, the former colonial power in a number of West African countries, has more than 4,000 soldiers in the region in its counter-terrorism taskforce Operation Barkhane. The United Nations has a 13,000-strong peacekeeping operation in Mali. French officials have expressed frustration that some countries in the region have not done more to curb criticism of French operations. Paris is also vexed that some countries have not fully implemented deals to bring more stability to areas of the Sahel with little law and order. On Dec. 10, Islamist militants killed 71 soldiers at a remote military camp in Niger near the border with Mali - an attack claimed by a West African branch of Islamic State. France announced separately this week that its Reaper drones deployed in the Sahel would now have the capacity to carry weapons, although the army command said the drone used in Saturday’s operation had not been armed. Reporting by Clotaire Achi in Abidjan, Tangi Salaun and Gus Trompiz in Paris, Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako; Editing by David Clarke and Kevin LiffeyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.