Live News

"If I am elected, I do not gèlerai, but I stoop down the salary of the president and ministers of 30%." By November 2011, Francois Hollande had made the campaign promise very symbolic, while Nicolas Sarkozy marked the spirits in increase of 172% net salary (of 7,084 to 19,331 euros) on arrival at the Elysee. Invited on France 2 on Wednesday night, the new prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, announced that this commitment would be the first of his government. Hardly installed at Matignon, he will propose a 30% drop in the wages of members of government from the first cabinet meeting on Thursday afternoon. "This is exemplary," said he explained. This measure will be a decree, he said.

The gross monthly salary of Ministers will be up to 14,200 euros per month, to 9,940 euros. That of the Prime Minister will also be trimmed from 21,200 euros to 14,840 euros gross. Like, finally, the compensation of the President of the Republic. With a plane that has a surprising consequence. Ex-Ministers continue to earn more than their successors for another six months. Indeed, each team member Francois Fillon retain his salary during this period. A privilege granted to all former ministers, who lose their theory, however, other benefits.

Largest decline in Europe

If they come later than in other European countries, this decline in compensation of government is by far the strongest. One of the first to take this measure, as he tried to impose on his country a vast austerity plan, was the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen. From 2009, he had reduced his salary and that of his ministers by 15%. In the process, in May 2010, Spain followed the movement by announcing a 15% reduction of salaries of its ministers. In the UK, the British prime minister, David Cameron, newly installed in power, his ministers imposed a 5% decrease in their pay. A dry diet made subsequently by Italy and Portugal, among others.

In Europe a constraint to fiscal Germany still appears a prosperous island. While the German economy grew by 2% annual rate in the first quarter, Angela Merkel and her ministers were granted for the first time in twelve years an increase of wages. The Cabinet decided on Wednesday to a 5.7% increase in three stages by August 2013, bringing the salary of Angela Merkel to about 17,016 euros gross per month and those of his ministers to about 13,795 euros.  

ALSO READ:

"IN PICTURES – The salaries of our political leaders

"Francois Hollande promises to" lower the salary of the President "

"The benefits lost by outgoing ministers

"Sarkozy will enjoy the privileges of former presidents

It is late. But, for once, it's not his fault. Whereas in Berlin Tuesday to 18 h 30, Francois Hollande has landed 45 to 19 h. Struck by lightning, the presidential plane was forced to return to land at Villacoublay.

As he arrives on the doorstep of the Chancellery, Angela Merkel is there to greet him. They exchange a handshake. No hug, as did Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, destabilizing his interlocutor. A little stiff, President novice discovers the protocol: a hand gesture, the Chancellor guide when passing in review the troops. It seeks its mark next to it and lack of hustle on the red carpet.

Just invested as president, Francois Hollande, like its predecessor five years ago, was keen to stress the symbolic importance and challenge of the Franco-German dedicated to Angela Merkel's first visit as head of state. "I did not know her, even if his reputation had long since crossed the border," he said after a meeting of more than an hour before a working dinner.

The Chancellor had not wanted to meet the Socialist candidate in the campaign to mark its defiance vis-à-vis the renegotiation of the budgetary stability pact. The subject was included in the course of the game menu. "I said in the campaign, I repeat again today, I wanted to renegotiate the treaty to include a dimension of growth", said Francois Hollande.

Before his election, he threatened not to ratify the text if it was not amended to include a revival of European growth. Tuesday, he paved the way for a compromise: "The method that we have agreed is to put all ideas, all proposals on the table and then see what are the translations for legal format." Everything has opposed priori attached to the socialist revival and conservative buttressed by fiscal discipline. But, obviously, the head of state does not rob his partner immediately. "We have different approaches to achieve growth, but we will share our ideas to see what are the different ways to stimulate growth," replied the Chancellor. Francois Hollande evoked improving competitiveness and Eurobonds cash advance flexible payments. To reassure the Germans, he said he was concerned about the "seriousness of the budget." But, he said, "it's because I'm for serious budget I am for growth."

Time was not on Tuesday, the settlement of underlying problems that have accumulated. "This meeting was intended to know us better, build a relationship, establish a working method," said the French president. Among the burning questions, the crisis in Greece could not be avoided, in a context where it leaves the euro area is now considered. "The Greeks must know that we will come to them to enable them to secure their place" in the eurozone, Holland assured. "I agree that Greece must remain in the Euro Area", completed Merkel, hoping, for his part, "structural reforms".

Sentenced to agree

The Head of State and the Chancellor will meet on Friday at the G8 summit at Camp David, then, in the process, that of NATO, in Chicago. Above, both meet again May 23 for an informal summit of Heads of State and Government in Brussels European. And in late June, the European Council, "French and Germans will jointly present their ideas for growth in Europe," Merkel promised.

Despite their differences, the new couple Merkel Holland was sentenced to agree. At the edge of its mandate, the French president can not afford to fail on one of its most ambitious promises, the reorientation of the European Union. For his part, Chancellor, one year of law, is obliged to strengthen its position against an opposition Social Democrats who redoubles criticism against the policy of austerity. In the presidential entourage, it is noted that the electoral victory of the SPD in North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday, depriving Angela Merkel a majority in both Houses of Parliament

ALSO READ:

"The SPD backing of French President

"The baptism of fire European Holland

"Merkel is working its counteroffensive against Holland

"Between Merkel and Holland, fundamental disagreements

Athens: the message of the Communists. Five days of Greek elections of 6 May, several thousand people (18,000 according to police), especially communists showed around Athens and Thessaloniki, the second largest city, struck by a particularly harsh austerity policy. This statutory holiday, traditionally celebrated as the "day of general strike" in the private and the public gathered including more than 8,000 activists of Workers Struggle Front, close to the Communist Party, a suburb of Athens, in support of workers a steel plant on strike for several months in protest against wage cuts. In Salonika 7,000 people demonstrated, mostly militants Pame.

Madrid against the new reform travail.Sous the slogan "Work, dignity, rights. They want to destroy everything ", some 100,000 protesters marched in 80 cities in Spain. In Focus events: budget cuts and labor reform adopted in February by the Conservative government. "New labor reform: towards a world of slaves," proclaimed a huge banner displayed to the start of the parade. Introduced to boost labor market since the explosion damaged the housing bubble in 2008, the reform is far from proven: Spain has broken a new record Friday of unemployment in industrialized countries, with assets of four (24.4%) unemployed.

Jakarta against loss of activity due to outsourcing. In Indonesia, about 9000 people, supervised by 16,000 police and soldiers, marched in the capital Jakarta to demand wage increases and denounce the loss of activity due to outsourcing. With its 240 million inhabitants, Indonesia is one of the highest growth rates in the world (over 6% per year) thanks to its vast natural resources. But half the population is still below the international poverty line while the average monthly salary, which is just over one hundred euros, just to follow the continually rising cost of living no fax cash advance.

Hong Kong: a minimum wage increase. This area of ​​7 million people is home to many millionaires, but also hundreds of thousands of working poor. Of these, 5,000 demonstrators called for an improvement of pensions, supervision of weekly working hours and a minimum hourly wage hike of 28 Hong Kong dollars (2.7 euros) to $ 33.

Manila: fighting for purchasing power. In the Philippines, they were walking toward a 3000 presidential palace in Manila, waving portraits of President Benigno Aquino. Workers in this country plagued by corruption where a quarter of the 95 million population live on $ 1 a day their leader in dog caricature orders of foreign capitalists.

Moscow: 150,000 pro-Kremlin protesters. Less than a week of his inauguration, President-elect Vladimir Putin and the outgoing head of state Dmitry Medvedev joined a large pro-Kremlin protest organized for Labor Day in downtown Moscow. Some 150,000 demonstrators attended the rally, police said. The two leaders headed the procession, in a friendly atmosphere, on the bottom of a sign "We're strong!" The last appearance of a Russian head of state in a parade of May 1 was in 1996 when Boris Yeltsin was very unpopular protesters joined a few weeks before the presidential election.

New York: a test to Occupy Wall Street. The Wall Street Occupy movement that attracted international attention with its protests last September wishes to maintain its waning influence in connection with the May 1. Of gathering are planned, including New York and San Francisco. Public participation in these events will determine the future of a movement undermined by the lack of financial and internal dissent.

Presidential in major cities Paris | Leeds | Lyons | Toulouse | Leeds | Sheffield | Liverpool | Bordeaux | Lille

Presidential in major cities Paris | Leeds | Lyons | Toulouse | Leeds | Sheffield | Liverpool | Bordeaux | Lille

Relations already chilly between Canal + and the Competition Authority has further strained a little more. Without much surprise, the Sages of the Rue de l'Echelle decided to open a detailed examination phase of the acquisition of two free DTT channels Direct 8 Direct Star by Canal + with the Bolloré Group.

This decision follows a first round of talks between the policeman of the competition and Groupe Canal + on remedies for this operation. The concern of the competition authority is that Canal + uses its dominant position in the acquisition of broadcasting rights for pay-TV rights to negotiate jointly for future free channels. Clearly, the danger is that Canal + is negotiating with the U.S. studios' rights sets for both Canal + and Direct 8. Thus, the group led by Mr. Meheut could oust TF1, M6, or any other chain of the DTT market with the acquisition of rights. For example, the rights for pay-TV Desperate Housewives (produced by ABC) are owned by Canal + when those same rights for free TV are the M6. The competition authority wants to avoid in the future, that same series is broadcast on Canal + and then on Direct 8.

Second concern: the Canal + group has a film studio, Studio Canal +, which sells movies all free channels after a stint on Canal +. The competition watchdog wants to prevent the films from Studio Canal ending up systematically on Direct 8 over other competing channels cheap business cards.

These key points have been part of negotiations open between Canal + and the competition authority since 21 February. Canal + was proposed in late March, a series of commitments. But they were written so that these commitments do not seem to be very restrictive, was then analyzed the competition authority.

It must be said that the competition watchdog has been scalded by the attitude of Canal +. Five years after the acquisition of TPS by Canal + in 2006, The Competition Authority has, uncharacteristically, withdrew the repurchase authorization. the reason? Canal + has not fulfilled a number of the 57 commitments he then took. Including the fact of maintaining the quality of the channel TPS Star, premium channel distributed by all the competing platforms CanalSat.

Remedies imposed

Worse, even as the competition authority has opened new negotiations on the purchase of TPS, Canal + decided to close its chain altogether TPS Star. A decision that was very badly received by the Sages of the Rue de l'Echelle.

In deciding a thorough review of the acquisition of Direct 8 Direct and Star, the competition authority wants to put pressure on Canal +. Either it offers significant remedies or the competition authority to impose under the injunctive unilateral. Both parties have until July to agree.

ALSO READ:

"At a stop to the expansion of Canal +

They are the world 4000. These are created corporate universities, including training for all employees into thinking strategy, relationships with customers and suppliers. In France, they are still relatively under-exploited compared to a country like the U.S. (they exist only in 42% of companies surveyed by Ipsos for the Panorama HR BearingPoint).

Accor has pioneered in France, with the launch of the first university (called Academy) in 1985 in Evry (Essonne). Since then, the network giant's hospitality has grown and now has 17 academies around the world, attended each year by 135,000 students (for an average of 3 days).

37 000 employees trained in Saffron

According to BearingPoint, corporate universities should be less a place of production of content for reflection on trades or animation of the sectors. The University of BNP Paribas, installed twenty years at Louveciennes near Paris, recalls in this context that 75% of training efforts are devoted to technical aspects and 25% are cross-curricular competencies.

Physical sites or campuses in schools that organize their behalf training sessions? Forms of corporate universities are diverse. The engine manufacturer Safran devotes 13 acres near Paris to house its campus, the Safran Corporate University, plus the locations in Beijing and Dallas, to train 37,000 employees each year. Same strategy for Veolia, which has 21 campuses worldwide, including 6 in France, or EDF, which has consolidated its business academy in Les Mureaux, near Paris.

Other companies prefer partnerships with academia. Like the Mazars University, founded in 2006 by the specialist in auditing and consulting. As for PSA, he plans to sign this year no less than twenty-three partnerships with colleges and universities. The manufacturer intends to target the most prestigious colleges in each region. A strategy that resulted in France by the creation of chairs at the Polytechnic or Mines.

ALSO READ:

"How to advance its employees

"E-learning is giving way in Europe

SERVICE:

"Find your training Kelformation

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the graphic

The end of the euro in a diagram, seen by Hermans Hurre

Here the French have six new channels which will be launched next fall on their screens. The Higher Audiovisual Council has indeed make its decision after weeks of suspense: HD1 (TF1), 6TER (M6), L'Equipe TV (Amaury Group), RMC Discovery (NextRadioTV), Cherie HD (NRJ) and diversity come tYou then enrich the current offer of 19 free channels.

The regulator has chosen, through this new offering, to reinforce the historical groups such as TF1 and M6 and strengthen those who made their debut in 2005 in television and are shown in good students, c ' ie groups and NRJ NextRadioTV. This is economic prudence that guided the wise men of the nine Tour Mirabeau in this new spectrum allocation.

But the wireless landscape is also open to new themes and new competition. The Team with HD, the French will be able to access the first sports channel for free. Enough to enable the latter who experienced the greatest difficulties exist in the depths of cable and satellite to survive and not to close shop.

TYou chain diversity is itself the only one not to be owned by a media group. It brings together financiers and businessmen (Xavier Niel, Francois Henri Pinault) seduced by the ideal one to showcase the diversity. The choice of the CSA is easily explained when we know the care that its members and its president Michel Boyon brought about diversity.

ALSO READ:

"The CSA selects six new television channels

Global consumption of wine is finding colors in 2011. It increases from 0.7% to 241.9 million hectoliters (hl). She stopped and started a downward cycle since 2007. "It seems that the worst is behind us. This does not mean that an immediate return to pre-crisis growth is confirmed, relativizes Federico Castellucci, Director General of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). In addition to unfavorable economic factors, changes in consumption patterns continue to see recovery in the major producing countries, such as the EU. "Indeed, European consumers now favor quality over quantity. This, however, are the Americans and Chinese who support sales.

47.4 liters per capita in France

In detail, the world's largest market, that is to say the EU wine consumption fell by nearly one million hectoliters last year, mainly due to degradation economic conditions in countries of this area and a change in customer behavior. Italian consumption shows a sharp decline of around 1.6 million hl (- 6.3%), as Spain and Britain, but to a lesser extent. Germany, meanwhile, has stagnated.

Only exception in this bleak picture: French consumption increases significantly (3.5%), almost 30 million hl. This increase is explained by massive purchases of wine last year on French territory by foreign tourists. But the OIV can not be quantified precisely. Single index, consumption rises officially in France to 47.4 liters per capita. Net purchases of tourism, it would be some 40 liters per person, a level close to that of Italy to 37.4 liters.

French cognac and champagne appreciated

For their part, the United States, second world market volume, estimated to have grown 0.9 hl (nearly triple the 2009 and 2010) and 28.5 Mhl approach. Americans like French cognac and champagne. Example: for the Charente house Courvoisier, "remains our largest market outside the U.S. where we sell 48.5 million bottles of brandy a year, or nearly 30% of our annual exports," said its president, Patrick Pinet.

China also exports have increased with the increasing popularity of a population easier for wine products. "Since 2001, exports of French wine and spirits increased by 3700%, three quarters of which relate to the claret and brandy," says Nicolas Ozanam, Delegate General for CFTS (Federations of exports of wines and spirits).

Result, world trade in wine in 2011 reached over $ 103.5 million hl, up 7.9%.

ALSO READ:

"Wines and spirits are at record export

"Wine tourism: a new European portal

"Climate: the alcohol content of wine is increasing