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Whatever the final scope of the Franco-German compromise on a European recovery plan, a point is a virtual consensus: the European Investment Bank (EIB) will be further tapped. During his campaign, Francois Hollande has repeatedly cited the institution, explaining to want to see more funding for innovative projects. Chaired by a German, Werner Hoyer, the EIB has the added advantage of being compatible with the philosophy of Berlin in public finance.

Created after the Treaty of Rome, in 1958, this arm of the European Union acts as a conventional financial institution with its shareholders – the 27 EU member states – and its own funds – 232 billion – which it serves as collateral to raise funds on the market and in return grant funds to the public sector. In other words, an appeal to the EIB does not dig, as such, deficits in the area.

Finance ministers of Twenty-Seven will meet Tuesday morning in Brussels, the Governing Council to start work on the practical modalities of strengthening the institution. An exercise stress: no question that the EIB, currently rated "AAA" by the three major agencies, lose this precious document. Where applicable, the cost of refinancing is found in heavy and interventions become less effective.

Two schemes in the study

Request more loans the EIB is therefore to provide in return the appropriate funds. Two schemes are under consideration. The first is to rely on the EU budget. The idea of ​​bringing the Commission to the capital being strongly opposed by the Member States, the solution that emerges would be to use part of European funds as collateral for loans which would then be granted by the EIB. It is this pattern that has been adopted in Greece, for example where the Bank has committed to lend up to 1 billion euros for innovative SMEs from a guarantee of 500 million EU.

The second scheme – which holds the rope – is a mere increase of the EIB's capital, financed by the 27 shareholders. The magnitude of this increase would be about 10 billion euros, which would allow the EIB to grant 60 billion of loans that can generate around 180 billion investment, thanks to the leverage caused by the co-investment from the private sector. An overall figure on which refuses to engage the side of the EIB, "everything depends on the type of investment, leverage is stronger in the context of public-private partnerships in SME lending" says an official. However, the figure of 10 billion additional capital seems to be confirmed.

The impact is not negligible for the European states. The two main shareholders of the bank, France and Germany, which each own 16.5% stake, will write a check for $ 1.65 billion. And even if it is not, strictly speaking, additional debt, the stress on budgets is important. The talks between finance ministers will continue in the coming weeks, to stop a scheme before the European Council in late June.  

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At the office, beware of personal files and other sensitive information. Contrary to popular belief, an employer is absolutely the right to see the entire hard disk of the workstation of its employees, without their permission. The collected files (images or pornographic films mostly, but also documentary evidence of contacts with competitors or disparaging the company from third parties) can then be used as evidence for a dismissal. One exception: personal files.

But how does one determine that a file is personal? The Court of Cassation rendered several decisions to this effect in recent years. The latest, released Thursday, says that a file stored in a folder named "My Documents" can not, despite its name, be considered personal, and can be accessed freely by the superior of the employee concerned.  

Appoint his case with his initials or his name is not enough either. The Supreme Court issued two decisions in 2009 explaining that the names were not enough to identify these records as private.

Personal files can be viewed in the presence of the employee

To ensure that certain files can not be accessed without his knowledge by his employer, the employee must create a folder named "Personal" quick pay day loan. For added security, better also add "Staff" in the name of files in the folder.

But beware! If the employer does not have the right to inspect documents "Personal" without asking permission of his employee, this does not mean it does not look right. The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that the opening of these files should be done in the presence of the employee, or following a phone call to warn him, "unless a particular event or risk justifying the deprivation of life private. "

Better to be cautious by not leaving anything to rest on his workstation outside its business documents. If a sensitive document must pass through your desktop, upload it to a support belonging to you, as an external hard drive, USB drive or smartphone … staff.

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Fuel prices soar notably due to higher oil prices. But is that they will decline as the black gold flow back on world markets? Yes, according to an academic study published last weekend by economists Erwan Gautier (University of Nantes) and Ronan Le Saut (Ecole Polytechnique). Their work is based on data collected daily by the Ministry of Economy between 2007 and 2009 with 10,000 service stations.

Contrary to the fears of the authorities and consumers, "the downward variations are as numerous as the variations on the rise, and they are of the same magnitude," the researchers said. They found instead that managers affect only three-quarters of price changes in international prices of a liter of diesel and two thirds for gasoline. "This gap is consistent with the importance of raw material-the-refined oil in the price of a liter at the pump (between 75% and 85% of total costs)," said Erwan Gautier.

Clearly, if the pump price varies to a lesser extent than international prices, it is because other costs that come into account in calculating the price, they do not move. These findings partly confirm the results of a study by the Ministry of Economy dated June 2011. According to the latter, which examined the evolution of prices for a few weeks, the drop in world prices was reflected better on diesel than on gasoline.

The two economists, however, lead to more accurate results. The petrol stations affect price movements in Rotterdam, where the refined oil is traded in the 5 to 10 days on average. The French Union of Petroleum Industry (UFIP) explains this delay by the time of transport for the supply of pumps and the need to sell existing stocks purchased before the price changes. Prices are revised, preferably on Tuesdays and Fridays, every 5 days on average for diesel, every 6.5 days for gasoline.

Supermarkets change prices more often

All market players are not as quick to change the prices, they detect. Supermarkets, for example, change more frequently and more significantly than other gas stations, belonging mostly to oil companies. This can be explained by the cost analysis Erwan Gautier: "Supermarkets share some expenses related to the operation of the pumps with their store." On the other hand, their margin is extremely low on fuel: it s' is for them a loss leader to attract customers and they are undercutting prices.

In reading the study, the existing competition in the market seems to push the players to pass on price movements as honestly as possible. The proximity of a gas station and a supermarket equipped with pumps, for example, the first incentive to adjust its prices more nimbly. On the other hand, the highway stations, away from any competition, the less impact of international price movements. And, with the exception of the Paris region, rates move slightly more often in urban than in rural. The stations offer many services and high quality fuels also adjust the lowest price movements.

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Times are changing. Apple also. Tim Cook, CEO of the group, visited China this week. This is the chief executive of the Apple brand to do so. Territory that Steve Jobs has ignored many years before the first open an Apple Store in 2008, but he never went. Thursday, the world's factory and especially Apple, China today is a tremendous reservoir of consumers. The Chinese world – mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan – is already the second largest brand, behind the United States.

No question of the destination then sulk. "China is very important to us and we look forward to further invest and grow here," and said Carolyn Wu, spokesman for the brand in one of the few interventions official Apple communication very stingy on the Overall the visit Tim Cook. Received with honors by the Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, tipped to succeed next year in the current prime minister, Wen Jiabao, also met with California leading operators China Unicom and China Telecom. First local operator, China Mobile still in talks with Apple to launch iPhone on its network. Moreover, an intellectual property litigation on the brand "IPAD" claimed by a Hong Kong company, slows sales of iPad in China, where the latest version has not yet been launched.

Wave of suicides at Foxconn

But the trip leader California also sought to address criticisms been rising, from around the world, on the manufacturing conditions of its high-tech products no fax payday advance. In 2010, a wave of suicides had given to Foxconn, Apple's main supplier that produces iPhone and iPad in China, a fatal reputation, yet tarnished by an explosion in a factory and workers of poisoning by chemicals.

An image so disastrous that earlier this year, the American actor Mike Daisey had no trouble getting across the Atlantic believe that Foxconn, children 12 years working in factories guarded by armed guards, before admitting that this information had been made.

No wonder Tim Cook will be split from a visit to the new Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, south-west of Beijing, including the official photos showed smiling employees. The Apple brand is committed to improving working conditions in its factory in China, signing an agreement with Foxconn on the hiring of tens of thousands of employees, improving safety and solving the problem for hours additional illegal.

Earlier, China had the opportunity to lecture foreign companies invited by Li Keqiang to "take more care of their workers," according to comments reported by the official daily English-language China Daily.

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Louis Welsh, CEO of aerospace group EADS, Airbus' parent company, for another few months, had assured him a few weeks ago the BBC: "We will continue and we will resist external interference." The confirmation of the German Ministry of Economics of a possible rise of Berlin the capital of the group could make the mission more difficult. The German government has indeed made a provision that could be used to repurchase additional shares of EADS.

Last November, Berlin had confirmed the recovery of half of the shares of the automaker Daimler, or 7.5%. The aim of the German government was not to lose ground against the French government retaining these shares in the lap of Germany.

But Berlin could therefore go beyond. The government has made a provision so that the public bank KF – who had already intervened in the case Daimler – can optionally be able to take additional units, the ministry said. In Focus, 4.5% stake now held by a group of private investors, shareholders also 60% of a consortium named Dedalus. This last group of public and private investors, includes, alongside great names of German finance Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank and Allianz, regional states in which EADS operates in Germany (Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg and Bremen ). Dedalus has a total of 7.5% of the aerospace group payday loan lenders.

Power relations

By the end of the year, the consortium Dedalus might decide to sell 4.5% stake. If he offers to the German State, it will be obliged to redeem them, the ministry said. Deutsche Bank and Allianz, who took 10% of each Dedalus at the time of formation of the structure in 2007, did not comment. According to the Financial Times Deutschland, the provision of government reach 1.6 billion euros. The new acquisition would amount to 12% of Berlin's participation in the capital of EADS. According to Les Echos, it could reach 13% if we add the 1% held by the public bank KfW in Dedalus. In front, France has 15% stake, and Lagardère 7.5%.

The balance of power at EADS are a sensitive subject. Recently, the German government has expressed its fears of excessive weight of France in his eyes in the division of roles and assignment of key posts, including the changeover from the center of gravity of EADS in Toulouse. Thomas Enders, Airbus President and current successor of Louis Galois, had proposed to his headquarters in Toulouse.

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As announced by the boss of Total, Christophe de Margerie, gasoline now costs more than two euros. According to the website carbeo.com, the unleaded 95 cost 2.02 euros in the service station Saint-Antoine in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. This is the first time this symbolic threshold is crossed.  

At the national level, prices of unleaded gasoline reached new heights last week, to 1.6211 euro on average for a liter of unleaded 95 and 1.6610 for that of 98 unleaded, according to data published Monday by the Ministry of Sustainable Development.

Since late 2011, gasoline prices beat record after record in France, powered by a dual effect of geopolitical tensions (Iran, Nigeria …) that keep crude oil prices at very high levels, and weakening of the euro against the dollar, which boosts the cost of black gold once its converted value in the single currency.

A political issue

Political leaders have seized the questiion. President Nicolas Sarkozy, candidate to succeed himself, had described the end of February "joke" blocking oil prices, a proposal by the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, pointing out that prices are determined by a "global marketplace to outside. "

Sales of unleaded 95 represent just under 15% of French consumption of motor fuels and unleaded 98 around 5%.

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The French are increasingly choosing to sustainable consumption. With the crisis, their new creed is "eat less but eat better." The year 2012 starts elsewhere in the gloom on the front of the consumer. The French have reduced their spending by 0.4% in January, INSEE announced Tuesday. This is despite the sales. A recent survey * Ifop, higher wages and purchasing power is a priority concern for 58% of French people (+ 7 points from August 2011) in the context of the presidential election. In addition to these concerns, the ideals of consumption to find a new green accents echo in these times of crisis. A brief overview of the latest trends in cutting waste.

? Donations from individuals, to stop throwing

"Donation after donation, we change the world." Is the slogan of Freecycle.org, a global network of gifts between individuals born in the United States in 2003, which now has 7 million members in 95 countries. In France, it boasts just over 44,000 members. The principle is simple: users register for free on the site to enter into relationships with other individuals and to make donations and recovery of objects. With over 345,000 members, the site Donnons.org created in 2006 has never experienced the crisis. In February, over 9,000 people registered on the site, after more than 11,000 new members in January. "With the decline in purchasing power, our members are looking for an alternative way to consume, and want to give new life to objects instead of flooding the waste dumps," said Isabella Geist, moderating Donnons.org. For the poorest, this site allows free access to certain equipment. "Unlike associations, we function as a social network. Some people stay in touch after making a donation. "

The "comeback" the most spectacular remains of the knitting. Photo credits: Karine Image / Flickr

Portugal has won its third review against its creditors. The troika (EU, IMF, European Central Bank) will be able to unlock a new tranche of aid to € 14.9 billion to be added to 38.2 billion already paid a total of 48, 8 billion if we subtract 4.3 billion earmarked for the recapitalization of banks. "This positive result demonstrates our ability to implement a demanding program," welcomed the Finance Minister, Vitor Gaspar.

Third country to benefit from a bailout after Greece and Ireland, for a total of 78 billion euros, Portugal seems to fare better than its neighbors, even though the government admits it will experience recession of 3.3% this year instead of 3% as initially planned.

In fact, it relies on the good performance of exports despite the crisis. Lisbon was able last year to reduce by 25% through its trade deficit up 15% of its sales abroad. Portugal has also continued its privatization program.

Challenges persist

The airline company TAP and airport operator ANA will be placed on the market very soon. The country has sold 21.35% of Energias de Portugal to China Three Gorges to 2 online cash advance.7 billion euros and 40% of its electricity distribution network to REN Chinese State Grid and Oman Oil for 592.2 million . Transfers of the State also concern the post office, bank Caixa insurance and freight of the national railway.

The aid plan "on track" even if "challenges remain", the judge troika. And Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho rejects any possibility to find themselves obliged to seek an extension. Portugal does not require "no more time or more money," he promises.

Only downside, unemployment continues to explode. He had reached a record 14% in late December, even hitting 35% of youth aged 15 to 24 years. Figures deemed "unacceptable" by the Minister of Economy, Alvaro Santos Pereira. And who said the secretary general of the main union confederation that the troika mission "is not helping the Portuguese but rather to help the markets."

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Just adopted and already obsolete. Wednesday afternoon voted in first reading by the House, the bill funding the Social Security (PLFSS) for 2012 will undergo significant corrections in the coming weeks. The text presented by the government was in fact built on a growth forecast of 1.75% of GDP in 2012. However, the admission of Nicolas Sarkozy, the increase in activity will be at best 1% next year. Be "a shortfall of 1.5 billion" euros compared to the current bill, said Yves Bur, the rapporteur of the social security budget. "This bill is disingenuous," said Wednesday the Socialist MP Marisol Touraine to explain the negative vote of the group. Given the measures already adopted, could fill the hole but not limited to one billion.To compensate for the 220 million that was to bring this measure, the government is considering several options: postponement of one day of payment of daily allowances, creating a fourth day of default in case of sickness, a reduction of 0, a point of the national goal of health spending (ONDAM, set the time at 2 payday loan.8%) or correction of daily allowances for stops exceeding 15 days.

The switch left the Senate finally adopted complicated "as" the social security budget. The Social Affairs Committee on Wednesday rejected a text "needy, irresponsible and unrealistic." For the communist president Annie David, this budget marks "a return to the cessation of the corporate balance" with a deficit projected at 18.2 billion in 2012.

There was a time when, in the provincial lotteries, it earned only an alarm clock, a bottle of wine or a pig … Since then, cars and sunny vacations have become more valuable lots. Carrefour decided to go much further escalation in the promotion that leads its competitors.

To bring the house down, the dealer puts in. .. Phoenix house worth up to 240,000 euros. Even better, the winner will also receive a check for 70,000 euros to help it acquire the land at the place of his choice. To be housed for life by Carrefour, just shopping in one of the hypermarkets of the sign. At checkout, you get a scratch ticket. It should then save the code on the site Carrefour.fr.The draw will take place October 31.

To attract as many customers as possible in its hypermarkets, Carrefour promises that the value of the jackpot will increase the number of participants small personal loans. If they are few, it will be a modest house of 82 square meters, valued at 150,000 euros. But if the lottery wins the success hoped for, it will be an opulent house of 132 square meters, estimated at 240,000 euros.

Never in Leclerc and Auchan

With this operation, the successor to back promotions and wine fair, the retailer hopes to make its customers wait until November. To fulfill its stores, Carrefour will then be discounted to Christmas, with many offers for meals and gifts.

The winner of the lottery the moment will have to wait 2012 to celebrate the holidays in his house Carrefour, surrounded or not by products from the distributor.But the brand hopes that the proud owner never will buy at Auchan or Leclerc, and that he will remain faithful.