France enters race to mass-produce drones
14/07/2025
REPLAY - France celebrates Bastille Day with a military parade on the Champ-Élysées
France
14/07/2025
France announces an extra €6.5 bn in military spending
France
14/07/2025
France is the main military power in the EU, but is it ready for the future?
France
14/07/2025
The 'Bleuet de France' play a newly composed song to remember veterans
France
14/07/2025
France Bastille Day: Youth volunteers at centre stage of military parade
France
14/07/2025
Bastille Day parade: France's annual show of military might
France
14/07/2025
France Bastille Day: 5,618 troops march on the Champs-Élysées
France
14/07/2025
Troops from all over the world parade alongside the French army on Bastille Day
France
14/07/2025
French military parades on national holiday after a ramp up in defence spendings
France
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Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
French PM proposes slashing two public holidays to reduce deficit
France's Prime Minister François Bayrou has outlined plans to cut €43.8 billion from the national budget, warning that debt presents a "mortal danger" for the country. The cuts involve reducing the number of people employed in the civil service and a so-called "solidarity contribution" for "the wealthiest", as well as scrapping tax breaks for business expenses for pensioners. He also proposed getting rid of two public holidays, citing Easter Monday and 8 May as possible contenders to be scrapped. Bayrou said that would make it possible to increase productivity without raising taxes or VAT. May 8 has historical significance in France and across Europe as it marks the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945 and the end of World War II in Europe. "It's the last stop before the cliff, before we are crushed by the debt," Bayrou told MPs, saying that debt is increasing by €5,000 every second. "It's late but there is still time," he added. He said the French shouldn't forget the financial woes Greece experienced more than a decade ago when it went through a full-blown debt crisis and needed multiple international bailout packages and years of austerity to get back on its feet. France's public deficit hit 5.8% of GDP in 2024, totalling €168.6 billion, a figure well above the maximum allowed by EU rules. In his announcement, Bayrou outlined significant budget cuts with the aim of slashing tens of billions of euros, aiming to bring the deficit down to 5.4% of GDP this year and 4.6% in 2026. He is hoping the cuts will bring the deficit to below the 3% threshold set by the EU by 2029. President Emmanuel Macron has tasked his prime minister with repairing public finances with the 2026 budget after the snap election he called last year resulted in a hung parliament too divided to tackle spiralling spending. Following the recommendations of Macron and citing the situation in both Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific region, Bayrou said no cuts would be made on national defence spending. €3.5 billion will be included in the 2026 budget, with a further €3 billion in 2027.
Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
EU delays measures against Israel on Gaza despite pressure to act
The EU will not 'punish' Israel for its actions in Gaza and will 'keep a close watch' on the country's implementation of a recent agreement to improve the flow of aid in the strip, the bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a press conference following a meeting of the EU's 27 ministers in Brussels. The ministers were in Brussels to discuss an EU-Israel agreement brokered last week to increase the number of trucks and distribution of food entering Gaza as well as the opening of several other crossing points. They also examined an exhaustive list of 10 options, including the suspension of visa-free travel and the blocking of imports from the Jewish settlements, in response to Israel's breach of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. 'Israel needs to take more concrete steps to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground,' Kallas told reporters, adding that Israel had already improved access and supplies of aid to Gaza. "The EU will keep a close watch on how Israel implements this common understanding and the pledges." 'The aim is not to punish Israel, the aim is to improve the situation in Gaza,' Kallas added. The bloc's ambassadors will be tasked to update Israel's compliance of the agreement every two weeks, Kallas said, and the EU would keep the 10 options 'on the table' and 'stand ready to act if Israel does not live up to its pledges'. Last week, the Israeli military admitted a "technical error" following a strike that reportedly killed 10 people, including six children, near a Gaza water distribution point. Some ministers expressed frustration at the lack of action against Israel. Following Tuesday's meeting, Slovenian foreign minister Tanja Fajon wrote on X that she regretted there hadn't been 'any consensus' during the meeting to follow up on the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. She added that an "agreement in principle" on improving humanitarian aid 'can't be used as an excuse to inaction'. 'We all have a responsibility to protect civilians,' she added. Prior to the meeting on Tuesday, some ministers had also sent clear signs that they wanted to take concrete measures against Israel. Spain's foreign affairs minister José Manuel Albares told reporters that in accordance with EU and international norms, his country would push for a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, an arms embargo to Israel and the ban of products from the Jewish settlements. 'This war needs to end, and the Israeli army needs to withdraw,' Albares said. His French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot also said France would be ready to take sanctions targeted at 'individuals and entities that are responsible for the extremist and violent colonisation' in the West Bank and to 'stop any direct and indirect financial support to the colonisation'.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Tackling debt 'curse', France wants to slash holidays
Presenting his outline 2026 budget plan, Bayrou said two holidays out of France's total of 11 could go, suggesting Easter Monday as well as and May 8, a day that commemorates the end of World War II in Europe. After years of overspending, France is on notice to bring its public deficit back under control, and cut its sprawling debt, as required under EU rules. Bayrou said France had to borrow each month to pay pensions or the salaries of civil servants, a state of affairs he called "a curse with no way out". Bayrou had said previously that France's budgetary position needed to be improved by 40 billion euros ($46.5 billion) next year. But this figure has now risen after President Emmanuel Macron said at the weekend he hoped for additional military spending of 3.5 billion euros next year to help France cope with international tensions. France has a defence budget of 50.5 billion euros for 2025. Bayrou said the budget deficit would be cut to 4.6 percent next year, from an estimated 5.4 percent this year, and would fall below the three percent required by EU rules by 2029. To achieve this, other measures would include a freeze on spending increases across the board -- including on pensions and health spending -- except for debt servicing and the defence sector, Bayrou said. "We have become addicted to public spending," Bayrou said, adding that "we are at a critical juncture in our history". Remember Greece The prime minister even held up Greece as a cautionary tale, an EU member whose spiralling debt and deficits pushed it to the brink of dropping out of the eurozone in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. "We must never forget the story of Greece," he said. France's debt currently stands at 114 percent of GDP -- compared to 60 percent allowed under EU rules -- the biggest debt mountain in the EU after Greece and Italy. The government hopes to cut the number of civil servants by 3,000 next year, and close down "unproductive agencies working on behalf of the state", the premier said. Bayrou said that wealthy residents would be made contribute to the financial effort. "The nation's effort must be equitable," Bayrou said. "We will ask little of those who have little, and more of those who have more." Losing two public holidays, meanwhile, would add "several billions of euros" to the state's coffers, Bayrou said. But the proposed measure sparked an immediate response from Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally. He said abolishing two holidays, "especially ones as filled with meaning as Easter Monday and May 8 is a direct attack on our history, our roots and on labour in France". Leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon of the France Unbowed party meanwhile called for Bayrou's resignation, saying "these injustices cannot be tolerated any longer".
