Eating a healthy product in a healthy container is so obvious! A big thank you to those who believe in this new way of consuming.

I can’t wait to see these pretty “zero plastic” oil bottles on the shelves of our supermarkets and organic shops. ”

Geneviève Salsat

L’article Public Council alongside Naturaé France est apparu en premier sur Public Conseil.

Sovereignists or so-called nationalists on the one hand, who appeal to our patriotism, to our love of the Nation, and defend a France that cannot accept any diktat, be it European.

Pro-Europeans on the other hand, who appeal to our reason and defend a strong France within the European Union to fight on equal terms and influence globalisation.

What both sides have in common is a great love of France.

Both could be considered as nationalists, because beyond any political appropriation, what else is nationalism than to love and want to defend one’s nation…

It all depends on the method…

The debate could have been easily decided by each citizen, if other factors had not intervened.

First of all, the State, or its successive governments, which blamed Europe for every unpopular measure, under the same slogan « It’s not us, it’s Europe ».

The result has been at best a slow but irreversible mistrust, at worst a real aversion to this distant yet constraining Europe.

Then there is the way Europe works, from the proportional voting system for its representatives to the unanimous decision-making process, which everyone understands, without having been to ENA, is a source of deadlock and, above all, that in this Europe, France’s voice only counts for one twenty-seventh…

The decisions of the European Commission, including the abandonment of Péchiney, or more recently the prohibition of the Alstom/Siemens merger, will remain high points of popular incomprehension, the source of the best of rejections, and which illustrate that Europe did not understand in time that its legislation on monopolies could no longer be applied in utero, i.e. between European countries.

Finally, historical amnesia. In these economic and social difficulties that we are experiencing, in this uncertainty of tomorrow, do we still have time to dwell on the past?

If we did, our memory would come back to us and we would see all that Europe has given us and enabled us to do: the restructuring of our agriculture with the aid of the CAP, funding for our research and development policy, European cooperation programmes for our researchers, exchange and opening programmes for our students, etc.

We would then understand that Europe is not the business of all, a generic and distant term, but the business of everyone.

It would then be clear that we need to reform the way this Europe works and not reject it outright.

This would undoubtedly lead to a change in behaviour, and primarily to a wider vote in the European elections, which has so far always broken all records for abstention.

This is what this new debate on Europe is all about: bringing Europe back into the hearts and minds of every citizen!

L’article Europe or « Heart and Reason » est apparu en premier sur Public Conseil.

Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, the French-speaking world is everywhere and takes French culture with it.

Practised, taught and defended, the language of Molière is making a strong comeback in diplomacy, which was in the process of becoming an unofficial language, promoting our values and our humanism.

Launched in 1962 by Léopold Sédar Senghor, President of Senegal, Hamani Diori, President of Niger, Habib Bourguiba, President of Tunisia and Norodom Sihanouk, Head of State of Cambodia, this idea of bringing together continents, countries, men and women of all origins around the French language and culture was a magnificent gift to our country, the value of which we have not always measured.

From a cultural perspective, the Francophonie has since spread to all sectors: economy, sustainable development, digital innovation, youth, education, training, etc.

In a few decades it has become a discreet but effective force, an invisible but powerful link, an honour without ostentation.

The French language, so badly treated at home, forced to defend itself in order not to be deprived of its simple past, shines abroad.

From North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa to the United Arab Emirates, from Uruguay to Poland, from Viet Nam to Lebanon, from Haiti to Romania, from the Seychelles to Bosnia Herzegovina, not forgetting Greece, Georgia, Canada…. all these countries carry their membership of the Francophonie like a banner.

They remind us of a pride that we have, unfortunately, often forgotten, abused and abandoned through excessive self-flagellation, and that we must recover.

We will then rediscover the aura of France in the world, the resonance of its voice, the power of its image.

Firstly, its cultural image, with the challenge of honouring the legacy of our philosophers, poets, musicians, thinkers, etc., who have contributed to our influence over the centuries.

Secondly, it is economic, because the French-speaking world is a formidable space for exchanges, partnerships and joint ventures.

The recent International Forum of Francophone Enterprises (FIEF) held in Dakar, where I had the honour to speak, was a perfect illustration of this.

United by the use of the French language, each of the participants, African politicians, business leaders and listeners, called for the strengthening of links within the Francophonie, considered by all as an opportunity, a pride and a hope.

It is up to us, French politicians, business leaders, artists, thinkers, citizens…, to measure the importance of this because the Francophonie must also be an opportunity, a pride, a hope…

Geneviève SALSAT
Chairwoman of Public Conseil
President of the Institutional Commission of the Groupement du Patronat Francophone (GPF)

L’article Francophonie: an opportunity, a pride, a hope… est apparu en premier sur Public Conseil.

L’article Geneviève Salsat elected Delegate Councillor at the Town Hall of La Celle-Saint-Cloud (78) est apparu en premier sur Public Conseil.

France had to wait for the law of 9 December 2016, known as the Sapin 2 law, to officially recognise lobbying, the declared philosophy of which is “the reinforcement of the bond of trust between citizens and public and economic actors”.

TRUST, that says it all!

But how to explain such a space-time?

The answer lies in our history.

Inherited from the monarchy of divine right, power is not shared and only the holder of the supreme authority can guarantee the general interest.

A centralising, Jacobin conception, sacralised in Louis XIV’s lapidary formula “l’Etat c’est moi” (the State is me), which will mark and perhaps still marks our minds and our institutions in the background…

How else can we explain this mistrust of lobbying, obscuring the fact that behind this name there are men and women who practise this profession as independents or in companies, with competence and deontology?

When will we recognise these lawyers, specialists in parliamentary procedure and the functioning of institutions, as actors at the service of the economic world and of democracy?

What could be more praiseworthy than allowing, facilitating and working to strengthen the dialogue between two worlds, the political world and the economic world, for better informed decisions that are closer to the needs of the field?

In this concert where only bad examples are shown, let us pay tribute to Jacques Delors who understood that the French conception was not tenable at the European level, to Gaston Defferre who understood that the general interest could be decentralised, to the Economic Affairs Commission of the National Assembly which, in a blue book, praised in preamble the virtues of interest groups and the added value they bring, particularly in terms of expertise, to legislative debates.

The reality of lobbying is to create a bond of trust and to involve the company in political reflection while respecting the institutions.

That’s it!

L’article What if we trusted the Lobbyists? est apparu en premier sur Public Conseil.