Weekly brief

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has long withheld any disclosure on his intentions for the 2012 presidential elections now two months away, is set to officially declare his candidacy to seek reelection in a television announcement on Wednesday, February 15, Reuters reported. The announcement is expected to be followed shortly by a quick series of appearances, including what would be his first public rally in Annecy on Thursday, February 16, and a speech to deliver his official campaign platform in Marseilles on Sunday, February 19, according to BBC and Ouest-France. As speculation grows, Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet is expected to serve as the spokesperson for Sarkozy’s re-election campaign, as covered by RFI and le Nouvel Observatuer.

Finance Minister François Baroin confirmed on Tuesday, February 14, that the economic-growth figures for 2011 set to be released on Wednesday, February 15, will demonstrate the slowing effect that could confirm previous predictions that France could enter recession in 2012, les Echos reported. On Tuesday, February 14, INSEE, the national statistics office, released figures showing that France dropped 0.2 percent of its salaried positions in the fourth quarter of 2011, losing 31,900 posts across the nation. The unemployment rate in France is at its highest level in more than a decade, as 2.87 million active French people were without jobs in late December 2011, according to l’Express.

A report by nuclear experts released on Monday, February 13, recommended that France prolong the life of nuclear reactors from 40 to 60 years, driving shares of Electricité de France up 4.3 percent and sparking further debate on the hotly contested topic of nuclear energy two months before the presidential elections, according to Bloomberg and la Libération. The report concluded that, though energy prices will continue to rise, they would stay lowest if nuclear energy remains a primary source of energy for the French, according to Reuters and le Point.

A Lyon court found agricultural giant Monsanto responsible on Monday, February 13, for the poisoning of a French farmer, Paul François, who brought the case against the world’s largest seed company with complaints of neurological damage caused by the 2004 inhalation of a weed-killer produced by Monsanto, the Washington Post reported. François launched a legal battle against the agro-giant, claiming that Monsanto did not provide adequate warning about the effects of its hazardous weed-killer, bringing the first such case to French courts, as covered by Reuters and TF1. Monsanto representatives said they planned to appeal the case, according to BBC.

Representatives of France’s air-workers unions met with the Ministry of Transport on Friday, February 10, after a prolonged strike caused hundreds of flights to be canceled through Thursday, February 9, les Echos and CBS reported. The negotiation ended with little resolved, as the various representatives held strong to their opposing views, according to la Libération.

The Greek Parliament voted 199-74 in favor of a sizeable austerity package early in the morning on Monday, February 13, as the city of Athens saw more than a dozen buildings destroyed by fire amid mass protests, the New York Times and le Point reported. In the political drama leading up to the passage of the highly protested package of cuts, intended to cut spending by 100 billion and lower Greece’s national debt to 136 percent of GDP by 2020, six ministers – four from the far-right Laos party and two Socialists – resigned by Friday, February 10, as covered by Reuters and l’Express. Following the agreement, markets and the Euro were expected to rebound, though doubt about the future of Greece and the European economy lingered, according to Financial Post, Barron’s and le Point.

Alcatel-Lucent, France’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, announced on Friday, February 10, that it posted a profit for 2011, the first time since the company grew from a merger in 2006, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company reported a net profit of €1.1 billion on the year after a €334 million loss in 2010, according to le Figaro. CEO Ben Verwaayen said the company was moving in a positive direction after setting a three-year strategy to return to profit that ended last year, as covered by Bloomberg.

Moody’s cut the credit ratings of six European nations on Tuesday, February 14, citing the European debt crisis as the reason for cutting ratings for Italy, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Malta, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The ratings agency also placed France, the United Kingdom and Austria on negative outlook, as covered by CNBC and AFP.

European banks are benefiting from a subsidy provided by the European Central Bank that could save them €120 billion in the next three years, EasyBourse and Bloomberg reported. More than 500 European banks, including BNP Paribas and Société Générale SA, purchased a total of €489 billion in three-year loans issued by the ECB with an incredibly low interest rate of 1 percent, according to le Figaro.