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The general scheme of Health Insurance

This is the social security scheme for employees and students. It covers 57 million French people, more than 87% of the population. It also funds 86% of health spending in the country, with resources from mainly social contributions (48%) and CSG (36%).

In 2010, the CPAM (Caisse primary health insurance) paid 142 billion euros in benefits, an average of € 5,260 per person. This total includes:

-Benefits in kind: reimbursement of medical expenses, hospital fees …

-Cash benefits: daily allowances of sickness.

Its current deficit was 18.6 billion euros.

Note: the local scheme of comprehensive health insurance benefits paid by Medicare for the inhabitants of Alsace (Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin) and Moselle.  

The agricultural system

The agricultural system provides both operators (attached to the AMEXA) and agricultural workers. It is managed by the MSA (MSA). It protects 3.5 million beneficiaries and $ 28 billion benefit in 2010, € 4670 per person per year. As for the general scheme, this amount includes benefits in kind and cash. Reimbursements for medical expenses are also identical. Its deficit is currently $ 1.4 billion.

Namely: the scheme provides not only those working on farms, but also employees of service companies in connection with the agricultural community, as insurance or banking.

The social system of independent (RSI)

This plan administers health insurance for artisans, merchants and professionals. However, it manages itself as contributions. Indeed, the repayments are in turn delegated to agencies under contract who are insurers or mutual. It covers 3.5 million beneficiaries who receive benefits 6.8 billion.

The reimbursement of medical expenses and hospitalization are again identical to those of employees. However, some professions, such as professionals, do not receive any daily allowances in case of sickness.

The special insurance

Certain sectors or companies, for historical reasons, developed their own health insurance. They are special diets. There are 11 in total, among which are the regimes of sailors, soldiers, mining companies (which merged with the basic plan to end 2013), SNCF, RATP, the gas industry and electricity, the Bank of France, clerks and employees of notaries … But also the Paris Opera, the Port of Bordeaux, the National Assembly or the Senate.

All these schemes are grouped in the National Union Special (UNRS). They cover a total of about 5 million people. Reimbursements for medical expenses are generally identical to those of employees. However, some plans offer more benefits.

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

After weeks of uncertainty, the commercial court of Nanterre Friday authorized the takeover of courier Sernam into receivership on January 31 by Geodis, a subsidiary of SNCF. This is-of a partial recovery. Geodis and its subsidiary BMV disburse 750,000 euros to recover clients Sernam, or 200 million euros in turnover, and some employees of the courier company in bankruptcy.

Of the 1441 employees, 833 will join Geodis in their labor pool. SNCF will be offering for reclassification to another 600 employees Sernam which are not included. However, Geodis will recover almost none of the 55 logistics sites of the bankrupt or the 1300 delivery vehicles.

There is another week, the rescue of the company into bankruptcy by turning the fund Butler Capital Partners was far from certain. The subsidiary of SNCF had established conditions of occasions that it seemed difficult to respond positively. It took the mobilization of workers and a very high pressure, during the Easter weekend, Thierry Mariani, Minister of Transport, to push Pierre Blayau, CEO of Geodis, to be flexible to open the way for recovery.

Mobilizing ministers in recent months has, hitherto, to defuse these issues one to one industrial high-risk period for presidential elections. To achieve this, the government relied heavily on public enterprises. This is doubly the case of the SNCF. In the folder Sernam today. But before that, in January, she was involved in the liquidation of its subsidiary, SeaFrance and delivers more than 800 positions in rehabilitation and compensation of around 60,000 euros per employee not included, enough to silence anger.

No fire

In late February, EDF has rescued Photowatt and its 425 employees by announcing a full recovery in one of the few French players in the manufacture of photovoltaic panels. Renault owned 15% by the State, has agreed to secure the backlog of Foundries of Poitou.

The government has also convinced LVMH, the world of luxury, to mobilize one of its subcontractors to save a site in Yssingeaux Lejaby employing 93 employees. In other cases, governments have succeeded in obtaining respite. This is the case of the Petit Couronne refinery (Seine-Maritime), which employs 550 people payday loan companies. She was placed in receivership in late January for six months following the bankruptcy of its parent Swiss Petroplus which the owner, announced the closure. The liquidation was avoided. The deadline for submission of bids is 30 April, between the two rounds of presidential elections.

Another very sensitive site ArcelorMittal Florange. Employees rallied against the closure of the last two blast furnaces in Lorraine.

Nicolas Sarkozy announced in late February for new investment on the site and has led management to ensure that the closure was only temporary. The anger remains, but there was no fire. Three weeks before the second round, the government hopes that no other case does invite the end of this campaign.

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3 questions to Pierre Blayau, CEO of Geodis

What has allowed a resumption of Sernam while it seemed compromised last week?

We gave a period of five weeks before making the actual resumption. It was left to the attorney the time to organize the social aspect of this operation and for us to set up failover, including computers, Sernam to Geodis. Such a delay would pose a risk of deterioration of the financial position of Sernam. After discussion, earlier this week, with the receiver, we have agreed to reduce the actual recovery period to 21 days, May 7 We have been flexible to allow recovery.

One gets the feeling that Geodis is committed to backwards in this recovery?

Contrary to what I read or hear, Geodis has always been voluntary. This operation has a real industrial sense. We will grow in a highly competitive market. We take up staff and customers representing 200 million euros in turnover. We do not increase our fixed costs.

After the takeover by Mory Caravelle last year and now that of Sernam, market concentration French-mail is complete?

Even if there are fewer players, our market is still excess capacity. The process of concentration should therefore continue to favor companies that have a real performance culture.

The Center for Strategic Analysis (CAS) continues its investigation into "the writing to the digital time." After concentrating on last November in the print media, the agency decision support attached to the Prime Minister released Monday in conjunction with the Centre National du Livre (CNL) its first proposals to help "the players book chain to take the turn of the digital ". Chriqui for Vincent, CEO of CAS, digital is "both a promise of new developments in publishing and a threat, as a share of value could escape the small booksellers and publishers if one does not fix clear trade rules. "

"A strong drawback '

Its three notes of analysis devoted to authors and publishers, bookstores and public libraries, the CAS takes priority recommendations to develop the digital book in France. Also attractive prices – "Consumers clearly want a high-price discount paper" – Vincent Chriqui calls for a consolidation of the French distribution of digital book around a single platform. "There are three distribution platforms in France. Booksellers and readers are confused, and this can only help Amazon (the creator of the Kindle reading light, Ed) which has the richest supply, "he notes. Besides the platform that Decitre will also launch in early April payday lenders. To develop a "real market" – the digital book represents just 1% of book sales when it weighs 15% U.S. and 10% in Britain, the CAS also recommends better "interoperability" ie "the ability to download digital files of books on any model of reading lamp or shelf. But this is not the case today: the tablet Kindle does not give access to files in ePub format, for example, "he says. "We think this is an obstacle to the development of the digital book at the same time that interference with the principle of free competition," said Vincent Chriqui.

The institution does not neglect the booksellers, weakened. One objective of CAS is to support the "policy of multi-channel strategy-store sales and Web-traditional bookshops, to prevent leakage of customers to the Internet giants." The low profitability (between 0.6 and 2%) of the booksellers are not given because the means to invest. All of these proposals, which must also preserve "editorial diversity of the French edition" will be sent to the Government.

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Brussels is the historical telecom operators in his sights. As revealed in the Financial Times, Brussels sent a questionnaire to the association GSMA operators and each of the heavyweights, France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Vodafone, requesting details of the informal club that 'they are since October 2010.

This club was created at the initiative of Stéphane Richard, who had just taken the head of France Telecom. His idea was to get acquainted with his counterparts and see how they could reflect together on major issues in the sector. Including the rise of Internet giants, Google, Netflix, Apple, Facebook, described as "over the top" or "OTT", an image to say they piggyback on carrier networks without paying the price.

Met for the first time 8 October 2010 in Paris, this "Famous Five" took a half dozen times. Aware that regular meetings of the five trucks, which together weigh more than one billion subscribers, may soon be mistaken for an agreement, the participants took their precautions easy payday loans. A lawyer shall attend the meetings and a report is sent each time to the European authorities. Moreover, Neelie Kroes, the Vice-President of the Commission responsible for digital strategy, participated in two of these meetings in Barcelona in February 2011 and 2012, alongside the Mobile World Congress.

Moratorium on lower prices

But today, relations are strained between telecommunications and the European Commissioner. This summer, Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of Vivendi, René Obermann, Chairman of Deutsche Telekom, and Ben Verwaayen, CEO Alcatel-Lucent, met Neelie Kroes to hand over 11 proposals for the future of the sector. But the Commission did not adopt these proposals.

Especially a clash occurred last February in Barcelona between Neelie Kroes and the bosses of the five main mobile operators. They have asked Brussels for a moratorium on the reduction of roaming charges (calls from abroad). They are also dissatisfied with broken promises that Brussels was considering contributing up to a billion euros to broadband Internet on the Old Continent.

Monitoring greenhouse tomatoes by computer processing of GPS fields, sales of wheat on the futures market … French farmers have nothing to do with their ancestors. Now they are showing their attachment to the land of a sudden high-tech.Plus question, for example, to sow the fly in vegetable and grain farms. The embedded software on tractors is more effective. Sebastien Objois, wheat producer in Evry, came to be convinced to stand agricultural equipment of the Exhibition of Agriculture. He witnessed a demonstration of interest Farmstar, which uses data from satellites SPOT 4 and SPOT 5. With this system, a digital pad and connected to the preprogrammed drill or spray can, depending on the characteristics of the field, sow more or less dense or spread more or less treatment.

"With board computerized equipment in the tractor plugged Spot 4 and Spot 5, you can sow your field with an accuracy of 2 centimeters," says Michel Fuga, who came to promote the Farmstar Porte de Versailles. Advantage for growers: Pesticide use is reduced by 5-15%. This saving can be amortized over three years the cost of equipment (about 15,000 euros).

More free time

Technological advances also benefit dairy farmers. With milking robots, the constraints of the morning and evening disappear. The cows go by themselves to trafficking. "The monitoring of the herd is behind the screen using a special software," says Eric Swartvagher, administrator ANEFA, National Association for the employment and training in agriculture.

Computers are also present in vegetable greenhouses. "Eating tomatoes above ground is now available from a computer, which controls the amount of water and air," says Angelique Delahaye, president of France and producer of vegetables in Touraine.

It is not enough to produce, we also sell the goods. The use of futures market or delayed deliveries, and a deadline for a given price, is becoming more common. "I practiced for several months to sell my pigs and to buy my food. But it took me to form, "says Philippe Upstream, pig farmer in Brittany.

"These new techniques not only meet the objective of increasing yields, and therefore income, but also a willingness of farmers to benefit from free time and family life close to those of society," said Christophe Malvezin, Agricultural Counselor, Embassy of France in Washington and former agricultural adviser of Nicolas Sarkozy.

Despite these advances, the French agriculture still has a wide margin for improvement. "While the United States, 80% of crops are produced by biotechnology, in France it is delayed, concludes Guy Vasseur, president of the Permanent Assembly of Chambers of Agriculture (APCA). France can not be a spectator in this area of ​​what is happening in the world. "

680,000 visitors to the agricultural show this year

Vintage 2012 International Exhibition of Agriculture (SIA) is very good. "We record 680,000 visitors, slightly more than last year," says Jean-Luc Poulain, president of SIA. This figure could be revised upwards as a computer bug has disrupted the counting inputs. "Merchants have never worked so hard that Wednesday, we recorded one of the lowest attendance days, with 55,000 entries," says Jean-Luc Poulain. The Friday night has been successful in statistics, with nearly 107,000 visitors for the biggest day of the show. Again this year, the SIA will remain the largest agricultural fair in the world with this feature: together in one place all the farm animals.

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In Frankfurt as in Hollywood, blockbusters at the box office still have a following. With its new Governor Mario Draghi at the wand, the European Central Bank (ECB) had a box in rooms (market) on December 21, proposing to banks in the euro area loans to three years paid at the rate of favorable 1%: some 523 banks had then drew 489 billion euros to the general treasurer. The central bank on Wednesday repeated with a second offer of funding under the same conditions.

As in December, the operation on tap the ECB had passed almost unnoticed, as this new album monopolizes attention. Meanwhile, in effect, operators have discovered the virtues of this infusion of cash, which "played a crucial stabilizing effect on financial markets in the euro area," said the rating agency Fitch.

How? By reversing the downward spiral that led states and banks in the southern countries of Europe towards the precipice. In addition to the invoice Greek tensions on sovereign debt Italy and Spain have indeed weakened the banks of these countries throughout 2011, boomerang-feeding fears about these states, leaving the specter of a rescue banking. The risk that France has to support its banking system has also weighed in the loss of AAA inflicted mid-January by the rating agency Standard & Poor's.

By flooding the banking system liquidity in the medium term, the ECB has caused a twofold benefit: one, the risk of going off the road an Italian or Spanish bank has moved away and two, these institutions are now able to support States by buying their sovereign debt. Hence the almost universal relief: relaxation rates on sovereign debt Italian or Spanish, rising stock markets, banks' resumption of emission payday advance… No wonder investors want more. How many banks ask they this time? Estimates vary between 200 billion and 1000 billion. With the idea that the higher the amount, the higher the markets will appreciate, because these are all new cash should get involved.

Virility contest

This vision reflects the optimism that blows from the beginning of the year. Not long ago, a massive use of banks to the ECB could have been perceived as a sign of weakness. Joseph Ackermann, head of Deutsche Bank, had also launched the controversy earlier this month stating that he had not presented to the Frankfurt office, wanting to avoid wearing the marks of a "subsidy". Mario Draghi had then replied that it was not "a contest of manhood." For his part, Stuart Gulliver, head of the rich British HSBC, said Monday that he had participated in "solidarity with the euro area". This positive attitude could help widen the circle. According to Oddo Asset Management, the euro zone banks must repay 813 billion worth of loans between 2012 and 2013, of which 270 billion solely for the German banks that had shunned the first wave.

Ultimately, the success of the program seems indisputable Draghi markets. This was an essential prerequisite to avoid chaos. The question is how these banks will inject money into the economy.

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The streets of Athens rose up against Angela Merkel and "diktat" German, which inflict a further course of rigor drastic to Greece. The criticism comes from all sides against the "iron chancellor" whose bitter potions would compress the growth throughout Europe. But his hand does not tremble. Sunday, hours before the vote of the Greek Parliament, Berlin has again raised the pressure to impose its will.

"The promises of Greece are no longer sufficient for us," warned Wolfgang Schäuble, Minister of Finance, pillar of the German government, in an interview with Welt am Sonntag. "It's important to say that it can be a bottomless pit. That is why the Greeks will finally have to clog the well. Then we can put something. At least people are now beginning to realize that it will not work with a bottomless pit. "Like many of his partner, Judge Berlin that the commitments of Athens are too often gone unheeded and demanded the immediate implementation of new austerity measures.

Stir in the coalition

Deemed the most pro-European member of the Government of the Rhine, Schäuble judge the rescue of Greece even more difficult than the reunification of Germany … The cost of the upgrading of the former GDR is estimated at 1,000 billion euros. Citing polls, he stressed that the Germans are largely in favor of an international aid to Greece. "We are pleased to offer our assistance, but we should not give others the impression that they have not done enough. Each state is responsible for itself, "he says. "Greece must do its homework to become competitive, it requires a new rescue plan or some other way that we do not want to take."

The German finance minister and openly discusses the assumption of an outflow of Greece in the euro area. "Everything is in the hands of the Greeks themselves. But even in that event, on which no table, they remain an integral part of Europe ", said Schäuble. The warning from the Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, is even blunter: "If Athens lays groundwork for sustainable, then Greece can count on our help. But only in this way. Only actions count. "

The Greek crisis causes a stir in the center-right coalition of Angela Merkel. Chancellor, who had raised that possibility in December 2011, now excludes any output of Greece in the euro area. According to his spokesman, there is no alternative to restoring the solvency of Greece. And an output of the eurozone countries would not be in the interest of Germany. According to German media, Merkel would have been convinced by the French president that such a scenario would expose the entire euro area markets virulent attacks. And it opposes several of his ministers on this issue.

However, a new aid plan for Greece, which contribute Berlin, will be voted on by the Bundestag on 27 February. If Athens does not concede quantifiable efforts by then, a new political showdown looms on the lower house of German parliament. Because, for Germany, solidarity also commits those who promise to respect the common rules of operation.

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On the Greek front, the relief was short-lived. The hope of a crisis after the announcement of an agreement between the austerity coalition in power has been showered later that evening by the Eurogroup. Indeed, the forum of finance ministers of the monetary union has not given the green light yesterday to the outbreak of a new critical assistance for Greece. "Despite the significant progress made in recent days, we did not have all the necessary elements on the table to make decisions" in the immediate future, said President of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, to outcome of the meeting.

The central bankers of the euro area have put three conditions for granting a new loan in Athens, and set a new appointment next Wednesday. Those responsible for the euro area demand and the Greek parliament approves austerity plan Sunday in the day yesterday accepted by the Greek political parties and its creditors. Finance ministers of the euro area also ask Athens to make "additional savings to the tune of 325 million euros" in the 2012 budget of the country, and that "by Wednesday," said Jean-Claude Juncker.

Finally, the euro area expected "strong political guarantees", written by the coalition parties in power in Athens no fax pay day loan. "We want real commitments" on reforms that are carried out, said the president of the Eurogroup. The Greek government estaccusé not fulfill all the promises of budget savings and reforms promised in exchange for international loans. However, to ensure that the funds will go far in debt repayment, the Franco-German proposal to create a special escrow account is seriously considered, said yesterday the European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Olli Rehn.

The doubts of the euro area are justified: the new agreement accepted yesterday by the ruling coalition was the same day denounced by the Deputy Minister of Labour, Giannis Koutroumanos and has not received the green light for conservatives Antonis Samaras. But the Greek Socialist Minister of Finance, Evangelos Venizelos, is intent on achieving an agreement. Last night he gave notice to the Conservatives to support additional budgetary savings at risk if not to see the country forced to exit the euro area.

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