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[RECTIFICATIF. Nous avions écrit dans une première version de cet article que la prochaine hausse, annoncée pour le 1er juillet 2024, était “essentiellement liée au fait que la consommation baisse”, en citant Emmanuelle Wargon, présidente de la Commission de régulation de l’énergie. Cette hausse est en réalité la conséquence de la hausse des prix du gaz, le prix de l’électricité s’alignant sur celui du gaz.]
Arguments already raised during the last european elections in 2019. While the Europeans will be called again at the polls on Sunday, June 9, many elected officials accuse the European Union of contributing to inflation, of producing unfair competition or of imposing too many standards in France. So, are these criticisms justified? Franceinfo has examined six statements about the European Union.
1 The euro has increased prices in France: false
This idea is very widespread among the French. When the euro was introduced on January 1, 2002, retailers took advantage of the opportunity to increase prices. However, this is not what the figures show. Inflation remained fairly stable in the early 2000s. According to the National Institute of Statistics (Insee), from 2002 to 2016, prices increased by an average of 1.4% per year, compared to 2.1% between 1986 and 2001. The general increase was therefore lower in France after the changeover to the euro. At the time, The European Commission and national authorities had put in place policies to prevent a potential price increase: for example, many 1 and 2 cent coins were put into circulation to prevent traders from rounding prices up to the nearest euro.
But then, why did the French feel a price increase? This is explained by the increase in “an unusual manner” of the price of products purchased frequently, specifies the Commission, such as bread, a cup of coffee, a haircut at the hairdresser… The feeling of soaring prices is mainly linked to the increases in everyday products, according to the economist Aurélien Faubaire, head of the consumer prices department at INSEE, interviewed by France 2. According to’InseeA baguette cost around 65 euro cents in 2001 and its price had increased by 10 cents.
On the other hand, the price of other less frequently purchased products such as rent, insurance and a laptop has remained stable or increased very little. This is why many French people feel that the changeover from the franc to the euro has caused prices to soar. However, prices have increased since then. In 2022, INSEE noted a 30% increase in prices since 2002, but wages have also increased, by an average of 50%. The arrival of the euro has therefore not reduced purchasing power.
2 Rising energy prices are due to EU: partly true
This statement was widely relayed during the 10% increase in the electricity tariff on February 1, 2024. The deputy Hadrien Clouet, elected by La France insoumise in Haute-Garonne, for example, shared this idea on the social network X. But this increase was not decided by the European Union. It results from the will of the French government to gradually exit the tariff shieldI am in place in 2022.
In concrete terms, the recent increases in the price of electricity are not linked to the EU, but to its single electricity market which charges electricity at a price different from what it costs to produce in France. This market was established in 1990, Its aim is to align prices for all member countries and create a common wholesale price regardless of national production costs. On this market, the price of electricity is based on the cost of fossil fuels used for production. The price of electricity is thus aligned with that of gas. In France, the electricity produced is cheap. However, it is sold at the price of gas on the European market. This soared at the time of the war in Ukraine.
After having already reformed it in October 2023 to smooth the impact of gas price volatility, European Union plans new reform of its energy market to limit these increases.
3 Europe imposes standards on France: false
The idea that the European Union imposes standards on the Twenty-Seven without their being able to give their opinion is recurrent. However, if European standards are indeed effective in member countries, and sometimes take precedence over national standards, they are not imposed. Indeed, the laws adopted by the EU are all subject to a vote by the European institutions.
And it is possible to find the history of the votes of the member states online. Since 2009, on the theme of agriculture, on Of the 103 laws adopted, only three were not approved by France. The same observation is made on the environmental side: only two laws were adopted without France being in favor of them. As for the laws relating to the economy, the 104 texts voted on since 2009 have all obtained the French vote “for”.
The majority of laws adopted by the EU are passed through the ordinary legislative procedure introduced by the Maastricht Treaty. According to this 1992 text, this co-decision process begins with the preparation of a legislative proposal by the European Commission. This consults various stakeholders in advance: associations, NGOs, scientists, citizens, etc. Once drafted and approved by the European Commissioners, the law is sent to Parliament. If the MEPs vote for the text, it is sent to the Council of the European Union. This is where the representatives of the Member States give their opinion.
4 France gives more money than it receives: true
Is Europe costing the French state too much? This is what Jordan Bardella suggests, head of the National Rally list in the next European elections. According to the far-right MEP, questioned at the end of January on CNews, “France gives much more to the European Union budget than it receives”. “I want to reduce the French contribution to the European Union budget, precisely so that this excess money is paid directly into the French economy”did he declare.
With 28.8 billion euros paid in 2021 to the European Union, France is in fact the second largest contributor to the Union budget, behind Germany, details the European Commission. on his site. However, “the bulk of this contribution is proportional to the wealth of the country”she recalls, representing “around 1%” of gross national income, a value quite close to GDP. For 2024, the French budget devoted to Europe is thus set at 21.61 billion euros, according to the French Ministry of Economy.
When we subtract the European funds received by France, it turns out that it paid 5.9 billion euros to Europe from 2014 to 2020. This is less than Germany (12.7 billion euros) and the United Kingdom (6.9 billion euros), notes the European Commission. Yet, from a strictly commercial point of view, France has benefited from its membership in the EU. According to a 2019 study (PDF) Led by the European Commission, the creation of a single market in 1993 contributed to an increase in EU GDP of 8-9% on average.
5 There are fewer farms in France because of the EU: to be qualified
“The destruction of our agriculture is wanted by the EU”accused former presidential candidate François Asselineau on the social network XTo support his point, the founder of the Republican Popular Union (UPR), a fervent supporter of leaving the European Union, shared a visual supposedly showing how “France loses a quarter of its farms in ten years” between 2010 and 2020. But what do these statistics really mean? Is this a phenomenon specific to France?
The decline in the number of farmers in France is proven. In his 2020 agricultural censusThe latest, the Ministry of Agriculture counts nearly 390,000 farms in metropolitan France, compared to around 490,000 in 2010, a drop of 20%, underlines Agreste, the statistical body of the ministry, on his site. “The farms are grouped together, there are fewer of them while working an equivalent space”he explains. According to a note (PDF) from the same organization, their average surface area increased by 25%, from 55 to 69 hectares between 2010 and 2020, while the agricultural surface area used only decreased by 0.8%.
This phenomenon is not specific to France: according to EurostatThe number of farms in the European Union fell by 37% between 2005 and 2020, with a marked disappearance of small farms. For Gérard Béaur, a historian specializing in the rural world, interviewed by France 3And “big turn” productivist was taken with the adoption of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1962. According to a study from April 2022, this favors the “large intensive farms”. It would therefore be necessary to adapt it more to small farms.
6 Posted workers create unfair competition: rather false
During a debate for the 2019 European elections on France TelevisionsThe rebellious MEP Manon Aubry had accused Europe of “social dumping machine”citing the European directive on posted workers. This directive would allow “German companies to hire Romanian workers, while paying contributions… in Romania”according to the elected official, adding that she “establishes a competition for the lowest social bidder”.
There has been a directive since 1996, allowing an employer to temporarily hire an employee from another European Union country. But as recalled on franceinfo According to lawyer Isabelle Savier-Pluyette, the posted worker must work and be paid according to French law. “An employee who would be seconded to a country, but who would not have the same level of remuneration as French employees in the same activity, that would constitute unfair competition”she believes. The principle is enshrined in a European directive of 2018applied since the end of July 2020.
In addition, the French employer using the posted worker must pay travel and accommodation expenses. However, he does not have to pay the social security contributions of the posted worker, since the latter’s country of origin takes care of this. According to a 2022 report According to Dares, the statistical institute of the Ministry of Labor, posted workers represented less than 2% of employees in France in 2021. Their missions lasted on average 100 days, mainly in construction.
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