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Women given right to vote in France 80 years ago
It came a full 96 years after suffrage was extended to all men in France - and 51 years after New Zealand offered the vote to its women
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EU proposes talks with UK for easy work and study for under-30s
The response from the UK has been muted. Labour says it looks too much like a return to pre-Brexit free movement and it has ‘no plans’ to negotiate such a deal
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Telecom firms, utilities: which offer English language services in France?
We checked out any advertised dedicated helplines
More plans to cut red tape
A ‘simplification drive’ is continuing this year with more administrative tasks being put online
MORE measures to cut paperwork and put administrative procedures online are on the way, aimed at saving the government €11 billion and simplifying people’s lives.
Some 92 new measures are planned, adding to several hundred which were announced in 2013 in the start of a ‘simplification drive’ by President François Hollande.
The changes include:
• Written decisions by public bodies will be required to be ‘easy to read and understand’.
• From September if you need to sign on as a jobseeker at the Pôle Emploi you will be able to do it directly online rather than filling in forms at one of the centres
• From the end of June people will be able to check driving test results online rather than waiting for a letter, and download a provisional licence on to their phones. Contesting a speed camera fine will also be possible online.
• By the end of the year a new dedicated site will be in place to get information on court cases and on obtaining legal aid.
• Applications for (means-tested) grants (bourses) to help with children’s schooling will be possible online.
• Applications to obtain the allocation aux adultes handicapés disability benefit will be simplified and if you are considered more than 50% disabled you will only need to renew your application every five years, not every two.