EURO-REPORT
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France Ian Sparks reports from Paris on some problems on the railways.
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rance’s state-run SNCF railways have landed themselves an unexpected €90 million bill after ordering 330 new trains that are 25mm too wide for station platforms. The SNCF is now frantically sending in workmen to widen the platforms at 1300 stations across France before the new rolling stock arrives at the end of 2015. The blunder happened after track operator RFF gave the wrong dimensions for its platforms to engineering company Alstom. The RFF’s measurements for the oversized trains related to platforms built less than 30 years ago, but most of France’s regional platforms are much older and too narrow for the new trains. France’s transport minister Frederic Culliver called the blunder ‘mind-boggling and tragically comical’, and Jean-Claude Delarue of the rail user group SOS-Usagers said: “This is hugely embarrassing and it’s not the first time they have made mistakes with platforms. It shows these bureaucrats are not in touch with the real situation. It’s outrageous how much tax-payers’ money they have wasted.” RFF chief Christophe Piednoel has confessed to the gaffe, telling listeners on France Info radio: “We discovered the problem a bit late, we recognise that and we accept responsibility on that score. It’s a bit like buying a Ferrari that you want to fit into your garage, but then realising your garage isn’t quite Ferrari-sized.” The Alstom industrial group is also at the centre of the latest French row over protectionism, after President Francois Hollande rejected a takeover by US giant General Electric on grounds of ‘national security’. Mr Hollande said GE’s €12.4 billion offer for the French manufacturer of power turbines and TGV highspeed trains was ‘unacceptable’ even though it was approved by the company’s board. Alstom is one of France’s largest private sector employers and is seen as central to the country, maintaining its position among the world’s major manufacturing powers. Being
taken over by a foreign company would be a massive blow to Gallic pride. The attempted grab by GE also comes amid a string of high profile company closures and record ten per cent unemployment – a picture that prompted the UK’s Economist magazine to brand the country as the ‘sick man of Europe’. But President Hollande is determined not to let Alstom be run from America, telling the French media in May: “The role of the state is to make sure the national interest is upheld. We have sufficient means of pressure to ensure that the outcome is good for Alstom, good for French industry, and good for the diversity of energy.” His economy minister Arnaud Montebourg also told GE chief executive Jeff Immelt that Alstom is a ‘strategic priority’ and insisted France must preserve ‘technological sovereignty’ over its nuclear industry. He added: “The main issue is that Alstom is trying to sell 75 per cent of a national jewel behind the backs of the employees, of the government, of most of the board and of the senior executives. The bid from General Electric raises the simple problem that the main part of Alstom, 75 per cent of the businesses, 65,000 employees in the world, is going to be run from Connecticut.” France has the legal power to demand guarantees that foreign investors do not erode the nation’s industrial core, but blocking the purchase by GE may be in breach of European Union competition law, which only allows governments to halt takeovers if public security or the free media is threatened – and neither are at stake in this case. Mr Hollande hinted that he preferred a rival €11 billion bid from Germany’s Siemens, adding: “There is another offer and we’ll see if it’s better.”
Netflix arrives Unlike GE, the US TV and film streaming website Netflix has overcome a raft of
French protectionist hurdles and is set to launch in France later this year. The company said its French launch would come ‘in late 2014’ as part of its push into the European market, where it currently only operates in Britain, Scandinavia and the Netherlands. A Netflix spokesman said: “Upon launch, broadband users in France can subscribe to Netflix and instantly watch a curated selection of Hollywood, local and global TV series and movies, whenever and wherever they like on TVs, tablets, phones, game consoles and computers.” Precise details on launch dates and pricing have yet to be announced, but French daily Le Figaro reported that Netflix would arrive in France in mid-September with a monthly subscription price of less than 10 euros – a cost similar region to Netflix’s other European services. The decision to go ahead with a French launch follows months of contentious negotiations between Netflix executives and the French government, which has put pressure on the US company to meet a number of rules designed to protect the French TV and film industry from foreign competition – the so-called ‘Cultural Exception’ – by barring the Internet streaming of films until three years after their cinema release. Streaming services based in France with annual earnings of more than 10 million euros are also required to hand over 15 per cent of their revenues to the European film industry and 12 percent to French film-makers. Netflix will also face competition from already established video-on-demand companies in France, such as Canal Play Infinity, offered by Vivendi’s Canal+. Netflix launched in 2007 and is now the world’s leading Internet television network, streaming more than a billion hours of digital films and television shows to online viewers n each month. Industry Europe 25
