Creuse is still the safest place to live in France - The Bugle

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FEBRUARY 2010 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu 6 ♦ NATIONAL NEWS Government defeated over ‘carbon tax’ The Conseil Constitutionnel, the court that examines the legality of new French laws, has dealt an embarrassing blow to President Sarkozy as it declared his proposed taxe carbone (carbon tax) ‘unconstitutional’ just days before it was due to come into force. The new carbon tax was a key element of the 2010 budget and was the flagship of President Sarkozy’s attempts to put France on the frontline of the fight against global warming. Its last minute rejection was both unexpected and embarrassing. The proposals were announced amid great fanfare in September 2009 and were designed as a tax on pollution. The tax was set at €17 per tonne and would have seen the price of petrol rise by 4 centimes a litre and diesel by 4.5 centimes. The tax would also have applied to domestic heating oil adding an extra 4.5 centimes per litre and another 0.35 centimes for each kWh of natural gas. France produces 90% of its electricity through nuclear power and electricity prices would have remained unchanged. The government estimated that the average household would have paid an additional €74 a year. The new regulations were deemed unconstitutional due to the large number of exemptions that would have resulted in a disproportionally heavy burden on ordinary households, while the largest industrial polluters would have gone largely untaxed. The court noted that up to 1,000 of France’s most polluting businesses - including oil refineries and cement works – would have been exonerated. “The large number of exemptions from the carbon tax runs counter to the goal of fighting climate change and violates the equality enjoyed by all in terms of public charges,” said the constitutional council in its last minute ruling. Speaking on French radio, the junior minister for trade and consumption, Hervé Novelli, admitted, “It was perhaps shocking that the sectors given exemptions were those that polluted the most. So we will have to put that right.” President Sarkozy has been increasingly zealous in his pursuit of environmental causes since the strong performance of the French Green party in 2009’s European elections, claiming when the carbon tax was unveiled: “It’s a question of survival of the human race”. There is little he can now do to avoid the huge embarrassment that will follow the failure of a highly publicised personal crusade to push the tax through. The bill faced opposition from the outset, with 2/3 of the public against the new tax and environmental groups warning the tax did not go far enough to be effective. The opposition Socialist party was understandably overjoyed at the bloody nose given to the president by the constitutional court. “This is a good decision and shows once again that Sarkozy’s way of doing things does not work,” the Socialist party’s parliamentary leader, Jean- Marc Ayrault, told French radio. “They announce a reform, listen to no one and produce a poor job. It’s a real mess.” The government is still determined to push through the taxe carbone and will present an amended proposal with a view to it becoming law on 1st July 2010. The last minute rejection of the new tax is not only an embarrassment to the government, it will also leave a large hole in government coffers as it was estimated it would raise over €4 billion in its first year. ■ New ‘triangle’ building to change Paris skyline The Paris skyline could be about to change for the first time in 20 years as plans are moving forward to build an enormous triangular building in the Porte de Versailles area of the capital. The 50-storey office building would break Paris’ 37-metre height limit on new buildings. Officials in Paris are voting on whether to overturn this rule that limits buildings to 37 metres with a view to six new skyscrapers eventually being built in the coming years. Paris already has a controversial pyramidal building: 1989’s addition outside the Palais du Louvre. At 180 metres tall, The changes would have seen petrol and diesel rise by 4 and 4.5 centimes a litre respectively ‘Projet Triangle’ will dwarf its dainty little sister. Many felt the 20-meter high Louvre addition clashed with the palace. The new triangle building is no less controversial. Denis Baupin, the Deputy Mayor of Paris and a member of the Green Party, has criticised the design as “bling-bling architecture… We have already got one tower that adds to the city’s radiance: the Eiffel Tower. No need for another one.” Constructed from glass and metal, the 50 storeys will offer 88,000 square metres of office space. An assistant to the mayor of Paris, Anna Hidalgo, was keen to point out the positive aspects for the proposed project. “Five thousand jobs will be created and visitors will be able to go up the tower and look out over Paris. And there will be a new 8,000-metre public garden.” The new building, which will become the third highest structure in Paris behind the Eiffel Tower and the much maligned Tour Montparnasse, was designed by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron and is already being called Paris’ answer to Lord Foster’s ‘Gherkin’ in the City of London. ■ Architect’s representation of the new building Cost of insurance on the increase Car insurance prices are set to rise by almost 3% in 2010, according to price comparison site, Stanislas Di Vittorio. A higher number of claims and a decrease in revenue due to lower interest rates in 2009 have meant that insurance companies will be putting up premiums for the first time in six years. House insurance will also be more expensive this year and health top-up premiums will see an average increase of around 5%. French urged to take out pet insurance While being the European country with the most pets (7.8 millions dogs and 10.7 million cats), France is far behind in terms of insuring its animals. In Sweden 80% of cats and dogs are insured, in the UK 20% are covered and in France just 2%. Leading pet insurer SantéVet is, however, noting a sharp rise in the number of pets being insured in France, registering premiums of over 10 million euros in 2009. The market for pet insurance is relatively new in France. The notion of keeping a pet has evolved over the years; in rural communities, where it was once considered usual to keep a dog on a chain outside, now we find our four-legged friends curled up on the couch! Grandson for President Sarkozy The presidential couple, Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni, have welcomed the arrival of a their first grandson, named Solal. The baby was born to President Sarkozy’s second son from his first marriage, Jean Sarkozy and his wife Jessica, heiress to a retail company. Advertise in The Bugle This banner advert costs from just €61/month For more information contact The Bugle on 05.55.41.17.76
It would be fair to say that since becoming president in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy has hardly been camera-shy. He quickly earned himself the moniker “omni-president” from his regular appearances on television and has garnered unfavourable comparisons with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for his attempts to gain more control over France’s airwaves. 2010 will see the biggest changes to France’s media in decades; Sarkozy’s controversial cultural revolution began in January with the banning of prime-time advertising on public service broadcasting (PSB) channels. The changes have sparked mass protests from journalists, with strikes at France 3 disrupting scheduling, and over 80 hours of heated debates in parliament. From January 5 th , no advertising is allowed on PCB channels from 8 pm until 6 am. Sarkozy’s reforms, which were passed through parliament to howls of derision, www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ FEBRUARY 2010 NATIONAL NEWS ♦ Government media revolution sees state TV go advert free The Swine Flu saga continued this month with the news that France is now looking to sell most of its vaccine. One month ago the vaccination process was beginning to pick up pace following a sharp increase in swine flu-related deaths, but with growing evidence that the H1N1-A epidemic is in fact shaping up to be no worse than the expected annual bout of winter flu, the French government looks certain to end up being accused of wild overreaction. 40% of French watch the evening news while eating their dinner will see all advertising on PSB channels phased out by 2011. Traditionally, prime-time TV in France is dominated by the 8 pm news, followed by a 20-minute block of continuous advertising before the evening schedules begin at 8.50 pm. This advertising window dominates all the major channels and is vital in a country where more people regularly watch the 8 pm news than read a newspaper; around 40% of French eat their dinner whilst watching the evening news. President Sarkozy studied the advertisement-free model used by the BBC before making his changes and claimed that they would free up the PSB state-run channels to produce more creative and less populist programming. The loss of advertising income will be recouped through new taxes levied on advertising on commercial channels which are estimated will raise €450 million a year. Critics say the changes will result in less money for the state-run channels accompanied by a drop in programme quality and political opponents claim the whole scheme is no more than a move by Sarkozy to line the pockets of his media baron friends from the commercial stations, who will reap the benefit from the inevitable shift in advertising to their channels. In other moves, when Patrick de Carolis, the president of France Télévisions, completes his five-year term in the summer, the prestigious appointment will now be made by the President and his cabinet, rather than the independent body France plans to sell excess swine flu vaccines France spent €712 million on 93 million doses of the vaccine. On top of that, they bought 33 million doses of Tamiflu and Relenza (anti-viral drugs) and an astounding 1 billion masks. No other nation went as far. Bernard Debré, an eminent doctor and dissident backbencher in Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party summed it up: “We have bought 10 percent of the vaccine in the world. We have one third of the world Tamiflu stock. The cost is more than the deficit of all French hospitals. It is three times the cost of the state anticancer plan.” When presented with the figures in such a way, it is inevitable that the government will face strong criticism should a third wave of swine flu not happen, as experts are now predicting. The government’s extreme caution is understandable when taken in the context of recent high-profile health scandals involving the government and France now operates a ‘principle of precaution’. In the 1980s there was a scandal involving HIV-infected blood. The then Socialist government delayed testing on infected blood because a French-made process was not available. Elsewhere, over 60% of the world’s confirmed cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease due to growth hormones have been recorded in France, following the enthusiastic use of these hormones in the 1980s. In 2003, thousands of the elderly and infirm died during a heat wave while the health and social services were on holiday. This has resulted in a principle that no risks should be taken and no expense should be spared if there is a threat to French lives; there is now a culture of ‘it is better to be safe than sorry’. The initial prediction (from the same experts who now say that H1N1-A is not that dangerous) was that 65,000 people could die from swine flu this winter – since downgraded to 1,000 – and the government will claim it acted accordingly. Indeed, a defiant Roselyne Bachelot, Experts now think they know how swine flu started Health Minister, went on TV to blame the ‘experts’, claiming, “I would do the same again.” France is now trying to sell the vaccine to recoup some of the money and in this it is not alone: Germany and the Netherlands held similar sales at the end of 2009. The UK had deals to buy 90 million doses, but built in break-clauses that it is now looking to exercise. In early January the head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, warned it was “premature” to say that the H1N1 pandemic was over. ■ 7 currently used, a move unlikely to go unchallenged. Changes are also afoot at AFP (Agence France-Presse), the world’s third largest news agency. AFP has held a unique status since its conception in 1957 that states that it would have no capital or shareholders. Directors of AFP have now decided that in the current media age, this is no longer viable and that the company will become publicly owned and funded with state capital. The move has angered unionists, and Frédéric Mitterand, the culture minister, has a tough task on his hands when his panel of experts present their proposal for the restructuring in March. There have, however, been popular and successful recent interventions by the government in the media. A state-subsidised campaign to get young people reading newspapers by offering a free copy of any daily newspaper to 18- to 24-year-olds has been a big success, with more than 150,000 having taken up the offer in the last 3 months. ■ Can I borrow a fiver, son Almost a quarter of British parents (22%) have admitted to dipping into their children’s savings in 2009 to pay unexpected and expensive bills. Others confessed to ‘borrowing’ from their kids to pay for holidays or Christmas, according to Engage Mutual Assurance. Michelin guides to chateaux & churches Michelin has launched a new collection of tourist guides to sites of French heritage (Patrimoine de France). The first two publications, Découvrez nos plus beaux Chateaux and Découvrez nos plus belles Eglises et Abbayes, offer readers an introduction to 110 of France’s most beautiful chateaux and no fewer than 185 religious sites. 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