France

Macron holds pitch meeting with Wall Street as budget worries mount

Macron spoke about the likelihood of increasing taxes to fund the country's budget, and was also candid about France's economic challenges

Goyal to hold meetings with Italy, France leaders next week to boost trade

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will hold a series of meetings with leaders and top CEOs of France and Italy next week during his three-day visit to these two countries to further boost trade and investment ties. The minister will be on an official visit to France (Paris) and Italy (Rome) on April 11-13. He will be accompanied by a delegation of top Indian CEOs. In France, Goyal along with Olivier Becht, Minister delegate of Foreign Trade, Attractiveness and French Nationals Abroad, Government of France, will co-chair the India-France Business Summit on April 11, the commerce ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The summit will focus on various themes, including building a green future, emerging technologies, defence cooperation and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific regions, it added. Goyal is also scheduled to meet with French business leaders across various sectors and will attend a CEOs roundtable. Both Indian and French ministers will participate in an event that

French court of appeal rules against extradition of Ukrainian billionaire

A French court of appeal ruled Thursday not to extradite to Ukraine the Ukrainian billionaire businessman Kostyantin Zhevago, who was temporarily detained in France in December. Ukraine's National Bureau of Investigation had said Zhevago, who owns a majority stake in mining group Ferrexpo, was wanted on suspicion of embezzlement and money laundering related to the bankruptcy of Ukrainian bank Finance and Credit. Zhevago was detained in Courchevel, a ski resort in the French Alps. At the time, French judicial officials in Chambery said he was detained pending a formal request for extradition by Ukraine which was ultimately refused. Zhevago was released under judicial supervision in France in January. The court in Chambery said Thursday it had an unfavourable opinion on the extradition request. Zhevago's lawyers said in a joint statement that beyond the respect of the human rights, this decision carries the mark of good sense. The decision can be appealed at the Court of Cassation

In Macron's France, streets and fields seethe with protest against him

A big day has come for French high school student Elisa Fares. At age 17, she is taking part in her first protest. In a country that taught the world about people power with its revolution of 1789 and a country again seething with anger against its leaders graduating from bystander to demonstrator is a generations-old rite of passage. Fares looks both excited and nervous as she prepares to march down Paris streets where people for centuries have similarly defied authority and declared: Non! Two friends, neither older than 18 but already protest veterans whose parents took them to demonstrations when they were little, are showing Fares the ropes. They've readied eyedrops and gas masks in case police fire tear gas as they have done repeatedly in recent weeks. The French are known for fighting and we'll fight," says one of the friends, Coline Marionneau, also 17. My mother goes to a lot of demonstrations ... She says if you have things to say, you should protest. For French Preside

Over 1 mn people join nationwide protests against pension reform in France

More than one million people in France joined nationwide protests, rejecting the government's proposed pension reform bill that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64

Macron pushes forward controversial pension reform despite tensions

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that his government's controversial pension reform plan should become law before the end of the year

'Weakened' Macron sticks with pension bill, eyes new reforms: Report

Macron does not plan any reshuffle or snap elections and has ruled out withdrawing the pension law, which will raise the retirement age by two years to 64

French govt survives 1st no-confidence vote in Parl, may survive second one

The French government has survived a no-confidence vote in the lower chamber of parliament and is expected to survive a second one, after its push last week to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. The no-confidence motion filed by a small centrist group and supported by a leftist coalition received 278 votes Monday, falling short of the 287 needed to pass. Another motion at the initiative of the far-right that is expected to get less support from other groups' lawmakers. If both votes fail Monday, the pension bill will be considered adopted.

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Violent protests erupt in France over Macron's retirement age push

Angry protesters took to the streets in Paris and other cities for a second day on Friday, trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down French President Emmanuel Macron's government and doom the unpopular retirement age increase he's trying to impose without a vote in the National Assembly. A day after Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invoked a special constitutional power to skirt a vote in the chaotic lower chamber, lawmakers on the right and left filed no-confidence motions to be voted on Monday. At the elegant Place de Concorde, a festive protest by several thousand, with chants, dancing and a huge bonfire, degenerated into a scene echoing the night before. Riot police charged and threw tear gas to empty the huge square across from the National Assembly after troublemakers climbed scaffolding on a renovation site, arming themselves with wood. They lobbed fireworks and paving stones at police in a standoff. On Thursday night, security forces charged and used water cannons to evacuate

France's Macron risks his government to raise retirement age from 62 to 64

French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 on Thursday by shunning parliament and invoking a special constitutional power. Lawmakers were shouting, their voices shaking with emotion as Macron made the risky move, which is expected to trigger quick motions of no-confidence in his government. Crowds gathered and riot police vans zoomed by outside the National Assembly, their sirens wailing. The proposed pension changes have prompted major strikes and protests across the country since January. Macron, who made it the flagship of his second term, argued the reform is needed to keep the pension system from diving into deficit as France's population ages and life expectancy lengthens. Macron decided to invoke the special power during a Cabinet meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, just a few minutes before the scheduled vote in France's lower house of parliament, because he had no guarantee of a majority. Prime Minister

French govt uses special procedure to adopt pension bill without vote

French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 on Thursday by shunning parliament and invoking a special constitutional power. Lawmakers were shouting, their voices shaking with emotion as Macron made the risky move, which is expected to trigger quick motions of no-confidence in his government. Riot police vans zoomed by outside the National Assembly, their sirens wailing. The proposed pension changes have prompted major strikes and protests across the country since January. Macron, who made it the flagship of his second term, argued the reform is needed to keep the pension system from diving into deficit as France's population ages and life expectancy lengthens. The decision to invoke the special power was made during a Cabinet meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, just a few minutes before the scheduled vote, because Macron had no guarantee of a majority in France's lower house of parliament. Then, as Prime Minister

India, France conduct maritime partnership exercise in Arabian Sea

The seamless conduct of the exercise reaffirmed the interoperability and high level of cooperation between the two navies

UK to pay France $576 mn over next 3 years to combat illegal immigration

As per Illegal Migration Bill, people who come to UK illegally cannot claim asylum, benefit from UK's modern slavery protections, make spurious human rights claims and also cannot stay in the country

ONGC signs MoU with France's TotalEnergies for deep-water exploration

The MoU seeks to provide technical help for ONGC's push to explore and reduce green house emissions in development of deep-water blocks especially in Mahanadi and Andamans, off India's east coast

Raisina Dialogue: Jaishankar meets counterparts from France, Bangladesh

Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar said that he met Oman's Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, France's counterpart Catherine Colonna, Singapore's Vivian Balakrishnan and Bangladesh's Abdul Momen

Will continue to stand side by side with India: French Foreign Minister

Speaking at the unveiling of the Villa Swagatam Initiative on March 3, she said that India and France share links in security, defence and various sectors

Indian approach key to facing many challenges: French Foreign Minister

France on Thursday appeared to rally behind India for hammering out a consensus on a joint communique from the G20 foreign ministers meeting that witnessed sharp divisions between the US-led West and the Russia-China combine over the Ukraine conflict. In her remarks at the meeting, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also said that the approach of India's G-20 presidency -- "One Earth One Family One Future" -- must guide the grouping to face many challenges facing the globe. The foreign ministers from the world's largest industrialised and developing nations held crucial deliberations on key global challenges that took place in the backdrop of the increasingly bitter rift between the US-led West and the Russia-China combine over the Ukraine conflict. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, China's Qin Gang, the UK's James Cleverly and European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell Fontelles are among those attending

Will oppose any step back from Bali statement on war, says France FM

Under Pillar One of BEPS, multinational enterprises with global turnover above 20 billion euros and pre-tax profit above 10 percent of revenue will have to pay 25 percent of the profit before tax

India calls for greater cooperation with France in clean energy field

India has called for greater cooperation with France in the field of clean energy and highlighted Delhi's plans for green transitioning to EVs and hydrogen energy.