Piles of paper and long queues will soon be a thing of the past for those trying to get French nationality as the French government rolls out a new online service that will save time and money for applicants.
The days of printing out mountains of paperwork then visiting the government office and waiting in interminable queues or risking sending the file by post are ending.
Since 6th February, those wishing to apply for French nationality have had the option of doing so online via the NATALI service.
The new service allows users or their authorised representatives to fill out the forms needed and send them by electronic means. It also allows applicants to follow the progress of their file as well as to receive alerts when missing or new information is required and to transmit decisions.
If the decision is unfavourable, users can also make an appeal online.
For those who don’t have access to computers, there will be terminals set up in local prefectures and agents will be on-site to assist. Additionally, a hotline, the Citizen Contact Centre, has been set up to assist with any necessary questions by phone. A similar online chat service is also available.
Monaco Ocean Week returns in March with a packed schedule of events featuring innovators, economists, scientists and its figurehead of Prince Albert all banding together for one cause: ocean preservation.
Ocean conservation and awareness have long been embedded in the collective psyche of the Principality, starting in the late 19th century with the Explorer Prince, Prince Albert I. Today, the legacy is being carried out by his namesake, Prince Albert II, who has dedicated much of his life to the cause and has, over the years, been instrumental in influencing change and bringing awareness of the plights of the seas.
Via the Prince Albert II Foundation, there have been several landmark actions, such as the appeal to stop the consumption of the endangered Mediterranean bluefin tuna in 2008, inciting the 2009 Monaco Declaration on Ocean Acidification and the Monaco Blue Initiative (MBI) marine conservation thinktank in 2010. In 2013, the foundation created an environmental fund to manage Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean, followed by the BeMed project, which was launched in 2015 to combat plastic pollution.
During the Paris COP21 in 2015, the Prince Albert II Foundation played a key role with the Because the Ocean climate regulation declaration, which highlighted the importance of the ocean in climate regulation and has now been signed by 33 countries. In 2016, the Principality initiated the IPCC Special Report on oceans and the cryosphere, which was officially revealed in Monaco in September 2019.
With so much focus going into ocean conservation, the logical next step was to create a forum for the leading marine sector stakeholders to gather together and speak about and inform others in the field of their specialities, tying the loose threads into one. This is how Monaco Ocean Week was born.
From 20th to 26th March, Monaco Ocean Week, now in its sixth edition, will see local and international experts, scientists, business leaders, public authorities, activists and NGOs uniting for a week of discussions, recaps of last year’s successes and debates.
Event highlights include a presentation of the recent Monaco Explorations Indian Ocean Mission, a review of the ongoing Pelagos Initiative project, a MedFund conference, and the Ocean Innovators Platform.
A full listing of the scheduled events can be found here.
Maserati Monaco Sports Group Racing made significant advances during the Indian E-Prix in Hyderabad, but their work was undone in the race and the Monegasque brand came away with a solitary point.
Maserati Monaco Sports Group Racing (MSG) have struggled to recreate last season’s form. The Monégasque team finished the Gen2 era as a serious title challenger, but at the dawn of this new era, they have slipped back into the lower mid-table.
After three disappointing races, the team headed to Hyderabad, India with just two points to their name, and although only a further point was added to their tally on Saturday, there is now reason for optimism.
Both Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Günther enjoyed strong qualifying sessions, finishing seventh and fifth respectively. It was clear that there was pace in the car, pace that was ultimately under-utilised in the main race.
Both cars endured a difficult start. Mortara made contact with Nick Cassidy early on, forcing the Swiss driver to pit and rejoin in 22nd, whilst a failed attack mode activation for Günther and subsequent pitstop saw the German fall to 16th.
A late safety car gave both cars hope of scoring a point, and Mortara made the most of the chance, finishing 11th before being promoted to tenth following a penalty for Sebastien Buemi. Günther finished 13th.
“This weekend has been positive but challenging, but we’ve shown a clear step forward in speed. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on our side in the race today. Although we’ve unlocked more pace, we need to keep following our processes so we can continue to find more performance,” said team principal James Rossiter post-race.
The grid next heads to South Africa for the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix later this month, with further MSG progress a must if the Monaco-based team have intentions of fighting right at the front.
Monaco energy supplier SMEG has reported a nearly 10% drop in energy usage across all sectors, with driving forces ranging from government awareness campaigns to consumer concern surrounding the rise in energy costs.
The rhetoric surrounding the energy crisis has spooked many people. Visions of families or the elderly huddling around a small heater in several layers of clothes, being forced to choose between eating and heating, has given society a chance to readjust the way it traditionally uses energy, with the results being somewhat surprising.
The Monegasque Electricity and Gas Company (SMEG), the energy supplier to Monaco for 133 years, has for years been collecting data on consumer usage, but until recently, the algorithms painted a picture of energy usage focused on overall consumption alone. Improvements to the system have allowed SMEG to break it down further into three sub-categories, namely customers with high, medium and low usage.
Across all three groupings, there was an almost 10% drop in energy use from October through to December 2022, compared with the statistics from the same period in 2021. The biggest consumers, such as industrial and large surface businesses, reduced their use by 9.9%; small and medium-sized companies by 8.7%; and the lowest consumers, which includes households, by 8.5%.
SMEG statistics showing a reduction in energy usage across all sectors. Photo source: SMEG
“It is significant,” says Sylvain Didierjean, the director of Electricity and Gas Activities at SMEG. “We clearly see that the average consumption over this period is still below the historical average.”
The drops are being accounted for by several factors: an awareness campaign that explained that the Principality could face intermittent power cuts if energy consumption remained high; the current cost of energy; and telecommuting, a change brought on by the Covid epidemic, but which has meant that companies aren’t spending as much on lighting and heating as before.
Though the signs are encouraging, and hopes are high that this shift in behaviour will be long-lasting, there are worries that when summer comes, people will forget. Monaco’s energy usage skyrockets in the summer as people turn on energy-sucking air conditioners as a way to beat the heat during the long hot days.
“We must continue to make efforts, each at their own level, because we remain in a situation of global energy shortage,” continues Didierjean. “There is also the planetary situation, which reminds us that if we limit our consumption, we preserve resources and the planet at the same time.”
But despite the positive developments, Didierjean has been keen to remind people that winter tensions still continue for the time being.
“Due to maintenance operations and power plants still under construction in Europe, we do not yet have all the means of production to ensure that the coming winters go smoothly, and therefore we will still experience tensions during the next two winters,” says the director.
French runner Jimmy Gressier has made history for the second time at the Monaco Run, retaking his European 5km record from Yemaneberhan Crippa in Sunday’s race.
Gressier returned to the track where his initial European record of 13:18 was set. Crippa had since beaten that record, although Gressier’s time still remained a French record.
The Frenchman’s chances of achieving his objective and taking his record back seemed to be hampered, with train strikes meaning he only arrived in the Principality at 11pm the night before the race. However, if preparations were sub-optimal, it certainly didn’t show on Sunday. The Boulogne-sur-Mer native ran a 13:12, beating his initial record, set at the Monaco Run in 2020, and in doing so reclaiming the European record.
In the Women’s 5km, Mirriam Chebet (15:40) came out on top, finishing comfortably ahead of the competition. Meanwhile, in the 10km races, Yohan Le Berre (29:52) won the Men’s race, whilst Zuzana Gejdosova’s 36:50 earned her the top step of the podium in the Women’s race.
Over the course of the two days, almost 2,000 runners participated in the event, which this year obtained the World Athletics Label – a validation of the increasing popularity and professionalism of the event.
The Monaco Yacht Club is investing in the development of an ecological corridor on Port Hercule to foster marine life along the coast of Monaco.
Since 2014, the Department of Maritime Affairs (DAM), the Department of the Environment (DE) and the Société d’Exploitation des Ports de Monaco (SEPM) have called on the company Ecocéan to install ‘Biohuts’ in the ports of Monaco.
The artificial habitats replicate the natural environments that support marine life and protect larvae from predators, therefore contributing to the chances of their survival and encouraging the growth of adult populations.
Scientific monitoring reports have proven their effectiveness, noting the presence of 416 fish of 12 different species and an extremely developed and varied fauna.
As a result, the DAM, DE and SEPM have decided to continue their partnership with Ecocéan for another four years.
The Yacht Club de Monaco has joined the cause and is funding the installation of 24 new nurseries in its marina.
A total of 79 nurseries will be installed this week in the ports of Monaco, which will cover all of Port Hercule and the Port of Fontvieille in order to restore the ecosystem impacted by human activity.
