Mayors demand swine flu refund
Twenty local mayors write to government asking for the money back that they spent on swine flu prevention campaign
ABOUT 20 towns and cities around France have joined forces to put pressure on the government to pay back the money they spent on tackling the swine flu outbreak.
According to the local government body the Association des Maires de Grandes Villes de France, local councils contributed about €4m to the cost of the prevention campaign, such as hiring temporary staff and paying overtime.
Some money has started trickling through, but the group of mayors have now written to the government demanding that their costs be refunded in full.
Paris wants back the €1.4m it spent on the vaccination and public information campaign. The bill in Marseille was in the region of €550,000.
The other towns that are asking for a refund are Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux, Brest, Caen, Lyon, Nantes, Perpignan, Tours, Besançon, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Metz, Montpellier, Montreuil, Rennes, Roubaix, Strasbourg, Tourcoing and Villeurbanne.
Last month it emerged that the government spent more than €1bn preparing for the swine flu outbreak, including buying vaccines, hiring medical workers and municipal buildings, buying masks and sending out vaccination vouchers.
The official auditor - the Cour des Comptes - and two parliamentary committees have launched separate investigations into the size of the bill after only 7% of the French population agreed to be vaccinated.
