Focus on France Ian Sparks reports from Paris

EURO-REPORT

FOCUS ON... France

Ian Sparks reports from Paris on good news for France’s shipbuilding industry and not so good news for football fans and gourmets.

France has just secured one of the most lucrative defence contracts in history by winning a €35 billion deal to build submarines for Australia.

Two years ago, it seemed that a rival bid from Japan had the contract in the bag. But after a series of blunders by a group of Japanese ministry officials, corporate executives and diplomats, the French naval contractor DCNS has now swooped in to clinch what has been dubbed the ‘defence deal of the century’ and left Tokyo’s dream of fasttracking a revival of its arms export industry in tatters.

Industry experts said Japan’s loss came about after bidders failed to commit to providing skilled shipbuilding jobs in Australia, and did not predict the fall from grace of former prime minister Tony Abbott – a close ally of his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe – who was ousted from office in 2015.

Meanwhile, the boss of France’s DCNS naval contractor Herve Guillou began muscling in on the deal by persuading French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to visit Australia and start the pitch for France.

Le Drian then wooed the Australians by evoking the countries’ shared history, and travelled to Albany in the country’s south-west, where officials had gathered to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first sailing of Australian soldiers to fight on France’s Western Front during World War One.

Then in September 2015, Japan’s key ally Abbott was deposed by Malcolm Turnbull and France’s DCNS hired Australian submarine industry expert Sean Costello to spearhead their bid, who won over US defence companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, one of which would eventually build the submarine’s combat system. And late last month, France learnt it had won the deal.

Japanese officials have now said they would like Australia to explain why they lost so they can learn from the ‘painful and bewildering’ experience.

Milking the fans

Elsewhere in France, the hotel industry has come under fire for hiking its prices by up to 80 per cent during this summer’s Euro 2016 football championship. A new study has revealed that the average room price in the ten host cities has almost doubled during the tournament from June 10 to July 10.

The survey by consumers group Que Choisir compared prices on match day with the cost one week earlier. The highest increase uncovered by the group was at the Best Western in Marseille, which raised prices by over 1100 per cent on match nights.

The Hotel Ibis beside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, near Paris, which is set to stage seven matches including the final, has hiked room rates by almost ten times when games are played.

A separate survey by holiday comparison site Likibu found private flat and house rentals had also jacked up their prices by 71 per cent in Lille, 60 per cent in Toulouse and 53 per cent in Lyon.

But in Paris, private landlords had only raised prices for short term rentals by 12 per cent due to a huge amount of competition in the market.

The Euro 2016 tournament will see 51 matches played in the cities of Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris, SaintDenis, Saint-Etienne and Toulouse.

A spokesman for Que Choisir said: “Hotels are charging as much as they can possibly get away with during the tournament. We can only advise fans to shop around, but not to expect to be staying anywhere for a bargain price.”

UEFA officials have also warned fans against buying black market tickets and hospitality packages which may be worthless.

The governing body said it had tried to take down numerous unauthorised websites illegally offering to buy or sell tickets for championships.

The Football Association runs its own England Supporters Travel Club and always urges fans to only purchase tickets via official channels.

Foie gras crisis

Also in France, producers of the controversial delicacy foie gras say they will lose millions from a three-month ban on production that started on Monday, prompted by an outbreak of the virulent H5N1 bird flu in the south-west of the country.

The ban means that breeders in 18 departments are not allowed to have any ducks or geese in their slaughterhouses or production rooms until mid-August.

H5N1 is highly lethal to birds but does not infect humans easily, although when it does it is fatal in about 60 per cent of cases, the World Health Organization says.

Marie Pierre Pe, spokeswoman for producers’ federation Cifog, said that 4000 jobs would be affected by the ban, adding: “This interruption to our business will cause large cash flow problems, additional wage costs linked to the temporary unemployment of around 4000 workers, and fixed costs that will have to be paid despite us not having any income.”

The ban also means there will be nine million ducks fewer on the market this year, meaning that the price of all duck-based products for consumers will be certain to soar. The production of foie gras has long been a battleground between animals-rights campaigners and defenders of France’s gourmet traditions. Force-feeding – known as ‘gavage’ in France – has been banned in several countries but is legal in France. n