EuroTr@sh

He also said he'd die in a ditch if the UK didn't leave the EU on 31 Dec. Looking at the state of readiness now, one year on, and the disruption that is projected to happen in January, what on earth would have happened if Johnson had been allowed to crash the UK out last December? They hadn't even started building lorry parks in Kent - hadn't even realised they needed any; they didn't have a smart freight system anywhere near ready; they hadn't issued any guidelines for businesses as far as I'm aware. They didn't have even a glimmer of a plan. So was it all an ego-saving charade by Johnson, pretending that he'd been forced by Parliament against his will to ask for an extension, or was he really prepared to inflict that damage on the UK?

woolybanana wrote the following post at 07/12/2020 15:34: I think the British tried to negotiate with the EU but did not realise the extent to which individual States were calling the shots behind the scenes, notably Macron. But what is the EU, if not a union of individual countries? Britain surely knew that Barnier was acting as the representative of all the member states. And again there is a contradiction in that on several occasions the UK tried to enter into discussions on the side with individual leaders, and had to be rebuked for it. So maybe it genuinely did not understand how the negotiations operated. On the security and data sharing issue, don't forget that the UK has seriously breached its security commitments more than once, the Home Office's data gathering methods have been judged unlawful by the EU, and the UK wasn't prepared to be bound by EU rules in the future nor to clearly state what rules it would adopt. So it's not as if the EU doesn't have an argument or two on its side. The "compensation" package also isn't exactly clear cut is it, there are aguments both sides. I'm under no great illusions about the EU but I don't think that you can blame a party in a negotiation for putting itself first and doing what it takes to protect its own interests. I think the UK's negotiating skills have been remarkably poor and I think the gratuitous bad mouthing of the EU in the UK media and portraying it as "the enemy" has not helped. The whole thing has turned into a mess and both sides have to share the blame for that. At the end of the day it is not a crime for two sides to have incompatible demands, but if that's the case they should have recognised it and agreed that a deal will not be possible. There is no need for all these recriminations. It is the same with company takeovers and mergers, sometimes talks begin and it becomes clear that there are insurmountable barriers and the talks end, no bad feeling. If Johnson can't accept the EU's demands and can't persuade them to change, he should have walked away a long time ago.

woolybanana wrote the following post at 07/12/2020 13:21: There is negotiation and negotiation. Much of this has been fine but some has been carried out in bad faith. Not that they should hand and presents to Britain, but attempting to punish her because she chose to leave in order to keep others from doing so is vicious. Wooly, could you give me a specific example of either negotiating in bad faith, or attempting to punish the UK? Because these are accusations that are often made but I sometimes wonder whether the people making the accusations have actually looked at it from both sides. So it would help me to understand if you could give a specific example. For instance, in February the UK signed a political declaration saying that they understood and accepted the need for a level playing field so that the EU could let them access the single market without fear of them distorting it by undercutting EU member states. And as soon as negotiations resumed they took the line that as a sovereign nation the UK cannot be tied to a level playing field - and yet, they still feel entitled to access to the single market. I would give that as an example of the UK negotiating in bad faith. So I think, it cuts both ways.

But wooly, Barnier is the EU negotiator. Obviously his loyalty is to the EU (including France but not only) just as Frost's loyalty is to the UK. I'm sure it's not intentional but your post does remind me of the many in the UK who seem to feel it's somehow not cricket for the EU to protect its own interests. To me it's a contradictory argument - on the one hand they're saying that it is a negotiation between two equals and the UK holds all the cards, and on the other hand they're saying that the EU should pull its punches and not bully poor ikkle UK.

idun wrote the following post at 06/12/2020 18:36: Isn't it in one's nature to be 'political' or not. I don't know idun. Maybe it can be there but latent and needs waking up? All I can say is, in my teens and my first 2 years at university I had no interest in politics, it was all about studying and sport and social life. Then I spent a year in France, then I came back and gravitated towards a different set of friends and got involved in demos and stuff. It was less than a decade after soixante huit when I was at the school and it was still regarded with a kind of awe I think.

I think the UK is very apathetic, politically. When I was 20 or so I did a year as an English speaking assistante in a lycée technique-commerce. My classes were 16, 17 and 18 and in the conversation lessons we sometimes used to take a current affairs theme and It was quite an eye opener to me how politically switched on these kids all were. Made me feel inadequate actually because I was supposed to be leading the discussion and I felt like a baby, I'd never discussed stuff at that level before and basically they took over and I just helped them with their English. One lesson we looked at terrorism, I don't think that in all my sheltered little life up to then I had met a terrorist sympathiser and I thought we would spend the lesson saying how dreadful terrorists are, but not a bit of it. I'm sure I learned more in those lessons than they did, and I came back from France a different person than when I went. All that to say, I think the potential for violence has always been there. It's always bubbling below the surface and it doesn't take a lot to bring it out.

In theory I'm not against a country withdrawing from a bloc that it has good reasons for not wanting to be a part of any more. It's a no brainer. I'm against this particular Brexit because I think it's been dreadfully mismanaged from start to finish and it will cause a lot of damage.

Hello idun. Welcome back.

I read that the van was found parked on the Spanish side.

French police are now saying they think she may not be in the mountains at all. It's turning into a strange story.

I had recently read the article about them and thought What a great way to live for a few years, and also, How sad that Brits won't be able to do this any more. But that is a good point - what was she doing travelling around with no valid reason during confinement? I don't doubt that it would have been inconvenient for her to have to change her plans and stay home, but the rules are meant for everybody aren't they? But still, desparately sad if this is going to have a tragic ending.

You may find this useful https://www.impots.gouv.fr/portail/particulier/calendrier-fiscal

Yes, expected to start n January apparently https://www.ouest-france.fr/sante/vaccin/covid-19-paris-pourrait-vacciner-30-a-40-de-la-population-des-janvier-7058731

Not sure why you would need to resort to fraud! When I changed insurers my new insurers dealt with the cancellation with the previous insurers. In fact they were absolutely delighted to do it, I got the feeling there was a bit of needle between the two agencies. Would the fake CdC thing even work with ANTS? If you initiate a fictitious sale just to get a CdC and then you don't complete it, you might find yourself with problems when you really do want to sell or scrap the car. Not sure this is to be recommended!

If the "raison sociale" of the SCI was to own property and it no longer owns any, it should be closed. For as long as it remains open its directors have certain obligations - to hold an AGM, to keep accounts, I don't know what else. As for "what is anyone going to do", well if the French authorities decide to puruse a person who is not meeting their legal and fiscal obligations, they normally start by sending a long letter explaining what obligations appear not to have been met and what the penalties are. (I know this because as a freelance translator I used to make a nice income translating these letters for Brits who had received them out of the blue and wanted to know what it was all about). I was always amused at the logical, clinical approach - the person's misdemeanour was broken down into the specific articles of whichever Code(s) had been infringed, multiplied by the number of times each infraction had occurred, Doing it this way rather than treating it as one misdemeanour, meant the potential fines increased faster than a rat up a drainpipe, for instance, if for a period of 5 years an SCI didn't hold AGMs and didn't keep accounts, that would be 2 infractions x 5 years = 10 infractions = 10 separate fines. They may never bother of course. But from your post it sounds as if perhaps you got your fingers burned by not fully appreciating how France operates and what consequences to expect from this or that course of action. Setting up a company brings certain obligations, and people are expected to take their obligations seriously, and if they don't there may be consequences.. If it were me I would close the thing as quick as I could. I guess that's because I've seen the kind of letters the autorities send out and felt sorry for the people who received them, and I wouldn't like to be on the receiving end myself.

If you don't cancel the policy it will roll over, regardless of whether you have paid the renewal premium by renewal date or not. Motor insurance doesn't lapse in France, it carries on until you go through the proper procedure to cancel it. So you will still be insured and they will chase you for payment sooner or later.

I think there is a better dialogue in France. The average Frenchie has a better understanding of what makes France tick (or thinks they do), and they feel they have a voice so they use it. And the media and those in charge talk to them like grown ups. I know you hate the French education system but, kids do seem to come out with a better grasp of how society works and the ability to think for themselves. So you get more protests, gilet jaunes etc, and there are plenty of mindless troublemakes to jump on the bandwagon but there is at least a dialogue. In the UK people whinge and carp and criticise but they don't engage. According to the latest poll 58% are opposed to a no deal Brexit, why isn't anyone out on the streets? The government rides roughshod over them and they let it.

Yes but the UK ... out of the EU ... under this government. Seriously, it could go rogue.

alittlebitfrench wrote the following post at 16/11/2020 14:28: Moving to the UK ? I dunno. France is going to the dogs. You know that, I know that...the French know that....the place in the suns have no idea. I would not move to France today. ALBF, in another time and place when I was thinking of going back to the UK, you said Don't do it, you will regret it. I thought you were probably right but I did it anyway. Where I'm at now, I don't regret it and I don't not regret it. In the UK I bury myself in the Welsh countryside and look on in despair at what's happening in the UK and in France. In France I bury myself in small town Normandy and look on in despair at what's happening in France and in the UK. That's what life has boiled down to, for me. But with a young family you can't do that. I certainly wouldn't encourage you to move to the UK right now. Anything could happen for the next year or so. UK container ports are starting to get blocked already, ships are being told they have to wait several weeks to dock, and that's before anything has changed. Give it time for the dust to settle and see how the UK looks then.

LOL. Yes the Pays de Caux is built on chalk (the clue is in the name) but that's only one specific region of Normandy. And even there, houses don't collapse very often, ou pour ainsi dire jamais. I once went on a guided tour a mushroom farm in caves near Orbec. It was absolutely fascinating, both the mushroom growing itself and the history of the caves. During the war people were evacuated into the caves and they lived down there, like a subterranean city.. Google it: La champignonnière d'Orbec LA VESPIERE-FRIARDEL Paris is also built on a maze of underground tunnels. Norra lorra people know that. I read a novel about a villain who was on the run from the police and he had a hideout underground, and I checked it out to see if it was true about how he could get around Paris underground and pop up through manhole covers wherever he liked, and apparently it more or less is true.

I applied to swap an existing CdS, on the portal's previous incarnation at the end of last year when Brexit was supposed to happen in December. Easy peasy, just a short form to fill in and send a scan of my existing CdS. I think the current reincarnation of the portal is the same. Since then I've had a couple of emails from the ministry of the interior reassuring me that I am in the system and I will be contacted by my prefecture one of these good days, Still waiting, but there's no rush.

Just a couple of comments. French rental law is tightly regulated. A furnished residential let is for a minimum of 12 months (except students and maybe a few other special cases). The tenant can give notice and move out sooner but the contract cannot be issued for less than 12 months. An unfurnished residential let is for a minimum of 3 years. As above the tenant can give notice earlier but the contract cannot be less than 3 years. Holiday rentals are a different category. Holiday let contracts are for 3 months maximum. But I don't think it would be possible to start a holiday rental just now because France is in confinement and people are not allowed to go on holiday, so gite owners are not allowed to rent out their gites to visitors. There is no guarantee when these restrictions will be lifted, it was supposed to be early December but the infection rates aren't looking good. Failing all else in the short term, I believe hotels are being accepted for residence application purposes, but even there I'm not sure how hotels are impacted by the rules on essential travel. On another forum, a person had arranged a short term airbnb rental while he looked for somewhere more permanent, and when he arrived the owner offered to rent the house to him for a year on a residential contract. Maybe have a look on airbnb and see if you can spot an ad where the owner hints at the possibility of a long term let?.

I'm baffled why people seem to be getting so upset about this unfortunate document. They're not sending a message are they. It's not a press release. Simply, they held a meeting to clarify how their borders have to operate after Brexit, which seems quite an important thing to clarify when you think about it, and they produced a report of that meeting and put it on their website because that is their internal procedure. Honestly I think they would probably be surprised at how many members of the public have found their way to this particular document and bothered to read it. Out of all the reports of meetings they post, probably most of them never get a single view from a member of the public. Look at it this way: if a third party had read the Minutes of a departmental meeting at wherever you used to work, might they not have come across a few abbreviations that everyone in the department was familiar but Joe Public might not be? Didn't your Minutes frequently have action notes that read exactly like the bit you quoted in blue? I'm sorry Nomoss but I think you've got a bee in your bonnet about this. Tongue sticky out emoji here (I can't do them on Chrome).

One bottle blond buffoon down, one to go...

betise wrote the following post at 07/11/2020 11:32: Honestly, if by DDL they mean deadline, why not just write it in full? For one use of DDL they then say "In constitutive systems: until the end of the application DDL (grace period) set by the respective Member State / after the end of the DDL + certificate of application." Well just think of all the keystrokes they have saved! For DDL meaniing deadline: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/thinktank/inde x.php/DDL#:~:text=DDL%20stands%20for%20deadline%2C%20often%20before%20COB. For other EU abbreviations - fill your boots (but it doesn't include DDL) https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/cybernews/abbrevi ations.htm But, I do think that complaining about the EU using shorthand in its internal documents, is rather missing the point that these are internal documents. I'm sure that if/when the EU decides to write a leafelt about this for release to the general public, they will spell things out in full.