Give blood in France (if you can)

The ban was imposed at the height of the mad cow disease scare and has not been revoked, even though predictions that thousands would die of the human form, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), turned out to be wrong.

According to British government figures, 156 deaths were linked to CJD in the 1990s. There have been hardly any cases since.

• Gay rights groups have filed a complaint with the European Commission over a French ban on blood donations by gay men unless they have abstained from sex for a year. They estimate that this means 93% of gay men are excluded. Until July 2016, gay and bisexual men could not donate at all under a 1983 ban.