Following news that construction has resumed at Monaco’s Larvotto beach development, the government has written into law strict safety measures to be employed at all construction sites across the Principality.
On Friday 10th April, the Prince’s Government revealed that it had enforced by Ministerial Decree, published in the Journal of Monaco, a set of health security measures for construction activities in the Principality.
The text provides a strict framework for construction companies with a base of measures that must be implemented in the current crisis, “with the absolute priority of preserving the health of all those involved in the act of building,” said the government in a statement.
The decree requires the strict compliance of measures including social-distancing of a one meter minimum, frequent hand washing, wearing of a mask, and regular disinfection of site premises, equipment and vehicles.
“We have added more restrictive provisions than in the neighbouring country,” said Marie-Pierre Gramaglia, Minister of Equipment, Environment and Town Planning, “namely: taking a temperature at the entrance to the site; the prohibition of eating outside the site and eating face to face; the prohibition of long journeys, except in cases of imperative necessity subject to the authorisation of Monegasque authorities; the prohibition of the use of temporary workers; and the mandatory designation by the Contracting Authority of a Covid-19 referent able to stop the construction site if necessary,”
Before any resumption or execution of construction works is allowed, a file detailing all the necessary measures that will be implemented, accompanied by plans and a list of personnel, must be submitted to the Direction of Prospective, Town Planning and Mobility and will be analysed in consultation with the Department of Social Affairs and Health.
Monaco’s authorities will perform regular checks to ensure compliance with the measures.
For more information, visit the government website.
Prince Albert II of Monaco has ordered confinement measures in the Principality to be extended until 3rd May. Police patrols will also be increased this Easter weekend to ensure people are complying with the rules.
The government announced on Friday 10th April that the lockdown, imposed on 17th March, will continue until at least 3rd May, upon orders of the Prince.
“This decision is part of the need to continue efforts to further contain the spread of the virus. These containment rules have, to date, shown their effectiveness, for three weeks, to ensure the sustainability of our health structures,” said the government in a statement. “It is essential to remember that the virus does not circulate alone, it is the movement of people that promotes the pandemic.”
It means that strict travel restrictions in Monaco will continue for the next three weeks. The only movement allowed is for travel between home and place(s) of professional activity, when teleworking is not possible and the work can not be deferred; to purchase supplies necessary for a professional activity and for basic necessities in establishments and local businesses authorised to accommodate the public; for health reasons, namely consultations and care that cannot be provided remotely and that cannot be deferred; consultations and care of patients with long-term conditions; for imperative family reasons, for assistance to vulnerable people or childcare; brief trips related to individual physical activity, for a walk with only people gathered in the same home, and to exercise pets; to meet a judicial or administrative summons; and to participate in missions of general interest at the request of the administrative authority.
The government reminds the public that visiting a family member or friends is not allowed, nor are trips to the countryside or on boats. It also asks people to respect social-distancing measures of 1.5 metres.
Police will be enforcing the rules and issuing fines of up to €200 to people who fail to comply.
Increased patrols during Easter
Controls will be reinforced this Easter weekend, with a drone sweeping the territory to ensure people are not gathering in groups, while police will also increase patrols at the French-Monegasque border to limit the number of incoming and outgoing traffic.
The Prince’s Government says it “is aware of the efforts required of each and every one. Staying confined at home, especially with the arrival of sunny days, requires patience and rigor – put to the test with the announced extensions. The Princely Government thanks and wishes to express its full support to each Monegasque and to each resident in these unprecedented times. The measures enacted have no other purpose than to protect the population from the coronavirus.”
BeMed, the organisation co-created by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, is launching a call for projects aimed at reducing plastic pollution in the Mediterranean islands.
The Be Med Task Force, a shortening of ‘Beyond Plastic Med’, was established in 2015 to “support and promote the networking of Mediterranean actors committed against plastic pollution, to implement efficient and sustainable solutions, and to contribute to the search for new alternatives, whilst encouraging the sharing of good practices.”
They have supported small scale regional projects, especially in tourist hotspots around the Med where plastic pollution is most concentrated, to achieve their goals and have passed information on to other places to attempt to replicate successes seen elsewhere.
To this end, the association has decided to take their work one step further by encouraging support and ideas from outside the organisation for larger-scale projects than are usually implemented.
BeMed is looking for projects that will run for a duration of 24 months maximum starting October 2020. Those eligible must be public or private people or groups that have a legal status allowing them to receive grants of up to €100,000.
The type of endeavours that will be considered must be part of a project that is already in progress or that complements a proven or completed project emanating from any Mediterranean country with a concern for the region’s islands.
BeMed supports many field work missions, with 38 ‘micro-initiatives’ having already been supported around the Mediterranean basin. This year will see 16 new projects in 11 countries which will expand their reach.
The new programmes are diverse but all are relevant to the organisation’s main goals and include such interesting proposals as encouraging fishermen on the Nile to collect plastic waste before it makes its way to the sea in Egypt; building a low-tech recycling centre to manufacture things from plastics found on Elba; workshops, educational programs and public awareness campaigns in Malta, Libya and Lebanon; and many more.
Project bids will be accepted until Sunday 21st June. More information can be found on the BeMed website at www.beyondplasticmed.org
BeMed was created by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Surfrider Foundation Europe, the Tara Expeditions Foundation, the MAVA Foundation and the IUCN.
In early March, Cory Trépanier excitedly attended the opening in Monaco of his Into The Arctic exhibition of paintings and films. Just days later, he flew back home to Canada, the Oceanographic Museum near empty amid a looming coronavirus lockdown.
The exhibition still hangs on the walls of the museum, but its doors remain closed to the public. It is unlikely that anyone in Monaco will get a chance to lay eyes on Cory’s exhibition before it is packed up and shipped off to North America in May.
So, Monaco Life is taking you on a virtual tour of Into The Arctic, with your own personal guide and Q&A with the artist.
In every canvas that he creates, Cory Trépanier has been face-to-face with some of our planet’s greatest natural wonders.
His Into The Arcticexhibition tour, featuring more than 50 oil paintings and three films, has been making its way across the world since 2017.
This March, it was Monaco’s turn to host the exhibition at the Oceanographic Museum as part of Monaco Ocean Week.
The title piece in the collection is the 15-foot wide ‘Great Glacier’, one of the largest Arctic landscape paintings in Canada’s history.
It caught the eye of Prince Albert when he was taken on a private tour of the exhibition during its opening.
Little did Cory know that Prince Albert would be among the last people to admire his paintings in the Principality – most of which are on loan from private collectors exclusively for this tour.
Left to right: Olivier Wenden, Vice President Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, Bernard Fautrier, Special Advisor to the Prince on Environmental Issues, Prince Albert of Monaco, and Cory Trépanier (2nd from right)
Monaco Life: What was it like meeting with Prince Albert, someone who is so publicly passionate about saving our planet?
Cory Trépanier: I first met Prince Albert during the first public screening of my latest ‘Into the Arctic’ film – the last in a trilogy of Arctic documentaries – hosted by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation during Monaco Ocean Week in 2018.
On Wednesday 4thMarch, I had the opportunity to meet with the Prince once again, taking him on a private tour of the collection. We connected on different topics of the environment and his recent dive to the deepest depths of the Mediterranean Sea, where he sadly saw garbage bags on the sea floor.
It was wonderful to see how engaged the Prince was with Canada’s North, and with my canvases and films born from this remote and fragile part of our planet. And it was an opportunity to personally thank him for writing the thoughtful foreword to my forthcoming coffee table book, Into the Arctic: Paintings of Canada’s changing North. The visitwas an experience that I will never forget, and one that I am very grateful for.
Photo: M Dagnino
Were there any particular paintings that the Prince was drawn to in the collection?
You mean apart from the giant 15-foot wide ‘Great Glacier’? (laughing). The Prince had visited Frobisher Bay in Canada before with the Students on Ice programme, which his Foundation has been supporting for many years now. So, it was great for him to be able to look at a painting of a view that was familiar to him.
He also seemed to really enjoy the final film of my Arctic trilogy – Into the Arctic: Awakening, which is part of the exhibition, along with the first two. The documentary follows me in the Arctic for nine weeks and 25,000 kilometres; I travelled with Inuit elders, paddled the most northerly canoe route in North America, walked in the footsteps of early explorers John Rae and John Franklin, and connected with a changing land, to bring it to the eyes of those who may never see it.
The film was too long for him watch during ourvisit, so I organised to send him a Blu-Ray.
Your paintings are all snapshots of reality. Can you tell us about the process you go through to create landscape paintings like these?
I begin by looking at the map and dream about the places I want to explore. Then I research what is actually accessible – because one of the most difficult things about the Canadian Arctic is access. It is a million and a half square kilometres of archipelago; one does not just show up. Some of these expeditions took a year to organise with airlines, Arcticcommunities, Inuit outfitters, local hunters and trapper’s clubs – people who are invaluable to work with in polar bear country.
All of these experiences get me out there, and once I am there, it takes a few days for the world that I have known – the phones and the noise – to start melting away. It takes a whole shift in mentality to let go and be aware of the world around me so that I start moving in unison with nature. Often, I carry a very heavy pack – 120 pounds at one stage – with my painting gear, photography gear (because I take pictures for reference and sharing), film gear, and camping gear.
Then the plane flies away and I am out there on my own. I realise just how small and minute I am in this world and how humbling it is. If anything goes wrong, it is a major issue to get out, so I find myself watching my steps more closely, trying not to take undue risks.
The creative process itself begins with choosing an environment in which I can immerse myself completely, and only then do I feel I am in a position to even think about painting.
As I start to look around me, I see a lot of options, but the challenge is finding just the right scene that combines powerful composition, lighting and subject matter, and also connects deep inside on an emotional level. 99% of the time, over the course of a few hours, other things start to happen – light will pass, clouds will move through, the light will change. My heart starts to race a little faster. And that’s when just taking a quick photograph and leaving does not offer the deeper experience of connection that I seek as artist, so I set up my easel and start painting.
Photo: M Dagnino
Given those challenges, how do you manage to complete a painting?
I carry a paint box that hold 10 panels – back-to-back in 5 slots – each covered in Belgian linen.
I set a panel up on my half-box French easel, and I start painting directly with my oils. After two to three hours I will end up with the essence of the scene. Sometimes those sessions go better than others; sometimes if I am getting eaten by mosquitos I may finish a little earlier. There’s a certain rush in the process of painting plein air, you are battling the conditions, it is an emotional high.
After a session, I sit back and soak it all in and ask myself if this captures some of what drew me here in the first place. I want to go beyond just representing a place to actually conveying the experience of being there: the awe felt, and the sense of wonder.
At home in the studio, I may take another week to finish a small piece, while a larger painting may take several months or more. Almost every painting in the museum right now has actually travelled from the Canadian Arctic itself.
Photo: Cory Trépanier
Is it disappointing that the public were not able to really see your exhibition because of the lockdown?
Of course. But what an honour it has been to have my exhibition in Monaco. I am so pleased to be part of the message that is coming out of the Oceanographic Museum and from the Prince about the protection of the environment, our Poles and the Arctic, and the need to care for people who live up in these regions as well.
It is a great desire of mine that my work connects people to our planet in ways that they may not often see. I hope it draws others closer, inspires greater care for these places and deeper consideration of our individual and collective actions as a society.
It is fascinating to see how the environment across the globe is breathing a little easier during this crisis. I hope this inspires a vision of what the future can be like if societies move forward more sustainably after this pandemic passes.
Photo: Cory Trépanier
You are isolated and largely alone on these expeditions, much like us all currently in confinement. What advice do you have for people who are self-isolating?
Keep busy. It is a great time for people to reach back to their childhoods and the hobbies they had growing up, or explore new ones. Be creative in some fashion.With tools as simple as paper and pencil you can explore a satisfying part of yourself that may have been long buried. Find ways to connect with nature. If you are fortunate to have family with you, relish this time with them.
These difficult times will pass. In the future, when we look back on it, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a new skill, a new passion, and new stories developed through this turmoil, that can bring newfound joy for the rest of your life?
The National Council and government have come together for the 3rd Joint Monitoring Meeting on Covid-19.
During the meeting on Thursday 9th April, the National Council asked the government to step up with clear decision making in these troubled times and offered their support by communicating the needs and expectations of the citizens of the Principality.
On the topic of health, the council reiterated its urgent request for masks for the entire population and offered local solutions to meet demand and put fears to rest of shortages. At present, a large portion of the population is having difficulty procuring masks. The government reassured the council that this was well in hand.
The subject of blanket screening was also discussed. The council was informed that tests are soon to be delivered, at which point it asked that the government take the lead in operational matters.
With regard to the economy, the council said it was “delighted” at the strengthening of the support system for businesses in need of the Extraordinary Minimum Income (RME) and Small Structures Aid (APS) packages. The RME will now include managers on Limited Liability Companies (SARL), though the council said it was disappointed that the measure “was not formally debated in a joint committee to allow all those who depend on the CAMTI-CARTI scheme to be able to benefit from it when the activity is impacted by the crisis.”
The Prince’s Government said that it was making good on the creation of emergency funding to the tune of €150 million, which includes €50 million in guaranteed bank loans. How the fund will be distributed will be up for discussion between the two entities and will be resolved as quickly as possible.
The government has bolstered some of the support systems it introduced recently for businesses in the Principality.
“The government’s objective is to do everything it can to relieve the economic impact of the health crisis as much as possible,” it said in a statement released on Thursday 9th April.
Responding to the “expectations of traders, artisans and businesses experiencing cash flow difficulties,” the Prince’s Government has already enforced guarantees for any credits requested from banks. In the latest measure, there is the possibility for the grace period of these loans to be extended, with an interest subsidy provided by the State.
In terms of direct financial aid, on 3rd April the government established the Extraordinary Minimum Income (RME), with a lump sum of €1,800, intended, under certain conditions, for self-employed people with a professional activity in their name in the Principality.
Now, it has also created Aid to Small Companies (APS), for the same lump sum of €1,800.
“These are two exceptional subsidy measures, the collection of which does not prevent beneficiaries from having recourse to the Monégasque Guarantee Fund, approaching their credit institution,” said the government.
Monaco has introduced a raft of financial measures since the beginning of the crisis in an effort to “preserve the economic fabric of Monaco and to face the economic and social challenges of the Principality.”
The details of these various measures are available on the website: https://en.service-public-entreprises.gouv.mc/Covid-19/Covid-19-practical-information/Assistance-to-businesses/General-information
Read more: €280 million to cover Monaco’s workers
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