My Blog

New 'linky' meters

26/04/2012 10:07:00

A CONSUMER group has called for a stop to the roll-out of the new “Linky” electricity meters, saying there has been a “campaign of dis-information” surrounding them.

UFC-Que Choisir has contradicted statements from ERDF, the body in charge of electricity infrastructure, that the roll-out will benefit customers and will be free to them.

It has applied to the Conseil d’Etat for the roll-out to be halted.

The group’s main complaints are that:

- A decision to generalise the installation of Linky meters was made even though trials were not conclusive as to effectiveness. There were many technical problems and it was not proven they helped customers keep electricity use under control.

- The meters are not free because they come with an increase to the “tarif d’acheminement” (supply tariff) that is added to bills. Also, the units are costly – three times more than similar ones used in Italy.

- Contrary to EU demands and promises at France’s Grenelle Environment summit, the meters, which can transmit data to electricity firms remotely, are ineffective at helping people monitor real-time use. This is because many are in communal parts of blocks of flats, in cellars, or otherwise inaccessible. Provision should have been made for separate display boxes in living areas, says UFC.

- It is claimed customers will be able to be billed on real use, not with estimates and catch-up payments; however, while this is technically possible, no law obliges suppliers to actually do this. On the contrary, the Code de la Consommation allows for only one bill based on real use per year.

In summary, says UFC “these meters are well and truly designed to benefit ERDF and the electricity companies, and give very little benefit to customers”.

It has drawn up a document (in French) about misconceptions that it has identified at: True and False

Cheques on the way out?

26/04/2012 10:04:00

CHEQUES could be on their way out in France as they cost too much to process - and one in two could vanish as soon as 2017.

The proposal, contained in a Comité Consultatif du Secteur Financier (part of the Banque de France) report into methods of payment, comes as countries such as Germany and Belgium have all but cancelled cheques from their lives. In France cheque usage has fallen 4% in the past 10 years but 11% of people say they would be upset if they were withdrawn altogether. The report said 18.3% of payments were still made by cheque and added the high cost of each transaction - between €0.50 and €1 for each one - was largely covered by the shop or the bank, which led to increased costs elsewhere. The CCSF said the average cheque payment was €555 and the 3.1 billion cheques used each year cost €2.4bn. Payment by credit or debit card, bank transfer or direct debit is suggested as an alternative as they are much cheaper. However, consumers' group UFC Que Choisir say the costs have been over-estimated as much of the work in handling cheques has been automated. The national audit body Cour des Comptes said in 2010 the cost of a cheque transaction was between €0.15 and €0.40. The CCSF said the usage of cheques and cash was a burden for the banks as it did not allow them to invest in new methods of payment - methods which were being introduced by rivals to cut costs and undercut traditional banks' rates. The heavy need for cash meant that banks spent €2.6bn on cash machines and the CCSF wants more investment in electronic non-contact payments using swipe cards, mobile phones or NFC technology and internet banking.

French cutting back on alcohol....what ever next!

23/04/2012 17:06:00

FRENCH people are easing back on alcohol consumption, with a study showing only 45% of customers in bars, cafés and restaurants order alcohol.

This is a reduction since the last study, in 2008, which showed 46.7% would order alcoholic drinks. It is backed by the finding that only 14% of people said they had alcohol each day - with the majority of them being over-60s. Daily drinking is very rare among women or young people.

The over-45s were the largest group drinking alcohol in bars and cafés.

Drinks industry group Entreprise & Prévention, which aims to cut down on alcohol abuse, carried out the study and said people were becoming occasional drinkers.

Nearly one in three said they were weekly drinkers while 21% said they were monthly drinkers and 20% said they did not drink alcohol.

It added that people were also buying less alcohol in supermarkets - but spending more money, with the annual alcohol budget rising €11 to €312.

Entreprise & Prévention managing director Alexis Capitant said: "For five years we have seen a reduction in alcoholic occasions, but people are drinking better quality alcool."

Local tax rises kept in check

23/04/2012 17:03:00

RESIDENTIAL taxes for the coming year are being kept roughly in line with the past year as mayors and departmental councils have reined back increases in the taxe d'habitation and taxe foncière.

The Association des Maires de France told Le Figaro that "across the board, mayors have chosen not to raise taxes" in 2012 and the Assemblée des Départements de France had the same message.

However, that does not mean impôts locaux are staying the same.

Local taxes are levied on the theoretical potential rental value of the property, a value which is set at national level each year, and that has been increased by 1.8%.

This means that households will face a minimim 1.8% rise even where local councils have decided to maintain taxes at the 2011 level. Some communes, such as Paris suburb Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine) and Châtillon-sur-Seine (Bourgogne), reduced their local taxes so the increase will be less.

The Assemblée des Départements de France said that even where local tax rates had been increased this had been done moderately, between 1% and 2% - although Haute-Garonne raised its by 2.8% while Maine-et-Loire has set a 5.1% rise.

France is out of the cold snap

17/02/2012 13:19:00

FRANCE is out of the cold snap which has seen sub-zero temperatures across the country over the last two weeks.

Most of the country apart from the north and north west is still on a low-level (yellow) alert from Météo France, meaning you should take care if doing activities at risk from bad weather, however there are no departments now rated at the second-to-highest orange alert.

Temperatures are predicted to remain above zero, apart from in the Alps, but they also dipped into minus figures this morning on the plateaus of the Massif Central and in parts of the Vosges, Franche-Comté and Midi-Pyrénées.

They will rise to highs of about 10C in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Corsica, Aquitaine and Brittany.

People are nonetheless being warned to be prudent when driving, because of the recent thaw and risks of snow falling on the road; and in the Pyrénées there is a “significant” risk of avalanche below 1,800m and a “strong risk” higher than that.

Snow chains will still be needed to access many ski resorts and some traffic problems are being predicted at altitude. In many lowland areas prefectures are closing roads to heavy goods vehicles to stop damage during the thaw. The so-called barrières de dégel are enforced with signs preventing vehicles above weights from using the road.

VAT rise voted through by MPs

17/02/2012 13:18:00

A RISE in the standard rate of VAT has moved a step further with its adoption by the National Assembly MPs.

The measure, which would mean a rise from 19.6% to 21.2%, from October 1, still has to go to the Senate, along with the rest of the Corrective Finance Law for 2012. This is supposed to be rubber stamped by March 9, when MPs and senators take a break as electoral campaigns get under way.

The government is determined to push the measure through – despite an embarrassing setback when the assembly’s finance committee initially struck it out of the draft law due to poor attendance by government MPs.

Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande, who considers a VAT raise “unjust and ineffective”, has said he will reverse it if he gets in.

The idea of the increase, described as “social VAT”, is that it would raise money that would enable to government to lower social charges on businesses, thus making them more competitive.

Also voted through in the bill was the new 1% financial transactions tax, meant to apply in France from the start of August (but which the government hopes to see also taken up by around 10 other EU countries shortly afterwards).

The vote came as the Senate – which is left-wing dominated – voted against a bill proposed by the ruling UMP limiting the right to strike in the air industry. The bill was the cause of the recent strikes and flight cancellations at French airports.

It will now go before a mixed committee from both houses before going back to both houses again, with the National Assembly having the final word.

Senate votes on Broadband for all

17/02/2012 13:17:00

A LAW aiming to make sure everyone has access to broadband has been passed by the Senate.

Its measures would mainly benefit people living away from densely populated urban areas.

The bill has been put forward by a centrist senator, Hervé Maurey, and a UMP Party one, Philippe Leroy – however it is contested by most of Mr Leroy’s colleagues on the right, and is also unpopular with telecoms companies.

It aims to create new regulations for the deployment of broadband, superfast fibre-optic broadband and also 3G mobile telephony. One measure obliges companies to supply all internet customers with access to 2mbps internet (a moderate broadband speed) by December 31, 2013 and 8mbps by December 31, 2015. It would also create a legal “right” to broadband.

This has been criticised by the French Telecoms Federation as “unreaslistic by the dates envisaged”.

The bill also aims at forcing companies make contractual engagements on the supply of superfast broadband to more rural areas.

At the moment they merely have to make a declaration of their intentions.

Mr Maurey said: “We want to review the model of the national programme of superfast broadband deployment because it rests only on the goodwill of the operators.

“As their declarations have no legal value there are no sanctions in the case of them not respecting them.”

The requirement to sign binding contracts would force them to meet the wishes of local councils, notably in terms of coverage of the most rural areas, Mr Maury said.

France Télécom has said the measures are “counterproductive, if not to say dangerous”. The bill is too “rigid”, the company said.

Industry Minister Eric Besson, who opposes the bill, said: “You can’t build the digital economy in opposition to the operators.”

The text has yet to go to the National Assembly and may not be adopted due to a tight parliamentary calendar.

Burglaries shot up last year

23/01/2012 16:03:00

BURGLARIES are significantly up (though crime in general is slightly down) new Interior Ministry figures show.

There were 3,533,256 crimes last year, a drop of 0.34%, said Interior Minister Claude Guéant – however burglaries were up 16%.

Mr Guéant blamed the rise in break-ins on a “new phenomenon that is very hard to combat, which is raids by people from central and eastern Europe who go from one country to another very rapidly”.

He added the good overall figures – which represent the ninth successive drop – are directly comparable to previous years’ because the same way of presenting the figures has been used since 1972.

“This will doubtless be the last time I do it this way, because we can move towards a more modern system, but doesn’t alter the fact that what I am presenting is rigorously precise,” he said.

New routes announced

10/11/2011 19:46:00

SUMMER might seem some way off, but airlines are already gearing up for the peak season with a number of new France-UK routes announced.

Jet2 has opened a new base at Glasgow International Airport and is preparing to launch a Nice-Glasgow route from March 2011. New links from Brive (Dordogne Valley) to Manchester, and from Toulouse to Newcastle, will open in May. Another new addition to the schedule is a link from Chambéry to East Midlands airport, which will run through the winter until the end of March.

Jet2 chief executive Philip Meeson, said: “Despite it being a challenging economic climate, which has seen both airlines and tour operators failing, we are excited about 2011, with our new base opening at Glasgow, new destinations, new routes, additional aircraft and new staff joining the team.”

CityJet has extended its Deauville to London City route to run all year round, from January 7, becoming Normandy’s first regular air link to the UK. Flights will run three times a week, with a fourth weekly flight planned over the peak summer period.

CityJet chief executive Christine Ourmières said: “There has been very positive feedback to our reinstatement of Deauville. It’s clear that this is a year-round destination. While it’s mainly a leisure destination from the UK, inbound traffic from Deauville to London has a strong business focus. This, combined with high demand from second home owners with investments in Normandy and the large British expat community in the region, means the popularity of this upmarket getaway is assured.”

A number of additional flights between Brive (Dordogne Valley) and London City Airport are to be operated by CityJet in February for halfterm travellers. They are on February 18, 20, 25 and 27.

Flybe has announced three new routes from Southampton to Béziers, Clermont-Ferrand and Pau, to run between May and September. It has also begun a year-round service from Nantes to Manchester, offering four return flights a week.
Flybe chiefcommercial officer Mike Rutter said: “We are pleased to announce these three new routes to France from Southampton that complement our 10 existing routes for those travelling to and from regional France.”

Ryanair has scaled back its French operation recently, with the closure of its base at Marseille-Provence airport, but is expecting a busy summer season at Beauvais, north of Paris. The airport has opened a second terminal dedicated to budget flights, to cope with increased traffic from Ryanair, Wizz Air and Blue Air. The €12m terminal more than doubles the airport’s capacity. Beauvais is expecting to carry 2.5 million passengers this summer, with 37 routes confirmed including Ryanair’s regular links to Dublin, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Easyjet launched a Lyon to Bristol route shortly before Christmas and will start flights from Grenoble to Liverpool on January 8.

BMI Baby has begun selling tickets on some of its most popular French summer routes, with more to be confirmed soon. The first routes on sale include Birmingham and East Midlands to Nice and Manchester to Bordeaux, Lourdes, Perpignan and Toulouse.

Aer Lingus has launched a new three-times-a-week service between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Shannon. Books are currently being taken up to the end of March.

British Airways has begun a winter route from London City to Chambéry.

Cheap mobiles deal for EU travellers

10/11/2011 19:44:00

READY-to-use sim cards bought on Ryanair planes could cut the cost of taking a mobile phone abroad.

The airline has teamed up with the telecoms company Maxroam to offer cheap calls to travellers. The sim enable travellers to receive calls and text for free, and to send texts for nine cents, calls for 29c per minute and 99c for one megabyte of data.

Maxroam cards will also be available to buy via Ryanair's website and will work in 43 countries in Europe. Passengers will be able to buy €20 cards for just €10. While it is not possible to use your old number directly, it is possible to set up your phone to forward calls instantly to your Maxroam number.

The pre-pay cards mean you will not exceed any limits and, while equipped to handle data roaming, will work with most phone models less than five years old. The cards are also available via Maxroam's website.

A survey by the European Commission found that citizens still felt roaming charges were too high, with almost 75 per cent worried about the cost of calls and data when travelling to different countries in the EU.

While the EU has capped the charges for text messages and calls when travelling to other member states, it has done nothing to regulate the price of data, an increasing problem for the growing number who own smartphones with an internet connection.

Commission vice-president Neelie Kroes recently told the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that crossborder phone tariffs were too high and would be capped further unless greater competitiveness was instigated.

She outlined three options under consideration to reduce them: price caps on mobile data roaming charges, similar to those on voice and sms; allowing people to buy roaming packages from any operator, not just their own; or requiring operators to sell the service to low-cost, virtual operators across Europe.

"The consumer often pays less than five cents for downloading one megabyte of data at home, but this may turn into €2.60 per megabyte when the same consumer crosses an invisible border," she said.

The Commission has set the goal of bringing the difference between roaming and national charges to zero by 2015.