Jim Murphy

French Presidency Preparations 2: planes, trains and automobiles

Rich - in answer to your question on 25th: the normal and preferred option from London is to use the Eurostar - simpler, quicker and more environmentally friendly.  If I am going to Paris or Brussels from Scotland (where my constituency is) I fly, but any FCO officials attending the same meetings usually use the Eurostar.This week I travelled by Eurostar. 

Posted at 16:09 26 June 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[3]

French Presidency Preparations

With just a week to go until the French Presidency of the EU kicks off (and the Slovenians get a well deserved summer break) I'm off to Paris this afternoon to see French Europe Minister Jean Pierre Jouyet. We've spoken by phone over the last couple of weeks, as I have to a number of my European counterparts following the Irish No vote, but it's good to see him face to face, and reinforce the UK's support for the French government's work on climate change, migration policy and European defence.
 
I left for Paris straight after Oral Questions from MPs to Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers in the House of Commons earlier today. After a debate on the European Council last week, and the PM's statement on it yesterday, it was good to focus on some questions about what the UK and EU are doing to actually help people - tackling human trafficking for example. See what was said in Oral Questions, and other debates in the House of Commons.

Posted at 18:43 24 June 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[3]

Meetings in Paris

At the end of last week, less than 24 hours after having voted against a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in the House of Commons, I was in Paris to talk about how we can get Europe to do more on climate change, the economy, security and many other things that we and the French are working really hard on.

I also visited the Equitess community project in Val de Fontanay, a Paris suburb, which is aimed at giving people the skills they need to get back to work. It's been put together with some European money and a lot of goodwill and determination. It's an inspirational project, and there are ideas here that we could possibly learn from.

I talked to the French Europe Minister, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, about this and many other issues when we met on Friday. You can see a video taken during our meeting here:

Written transcript

JM

Here I am in Paris with Jean-Pierre Jouyet, my good friend and French Minister for Europe. We have had lunch and just had a press conference to go through all the big issues facing Europe and France which is so important to the United Kingdom.

President Sarkozy will be in the United Kingdom later this month and also France will be the President of the European Union later this year and that's why I was here with Jean-Pierre.

We had such a detailed conversation about things like Climate Change, International Security and the Economy. But you have heard enough from me on this by this diary I just want to pass over to Jean-Pierre to give his reflections on what we have spoken about.

JP

Yes I think that it was a very good meeting it's always a pleasure to have a meeting with Jim in Paris.

I want to tell you before that I'm very happy of the outcome of the debate in the House of Commons about the ratification of the Treaty and we were very appreciate of the role that Jim played in this vote in Parliament, it's very good news for UK, it's very good news for Europe and I am also to tell that I am very happy between French and the United Kingdom now we act in the spirit of confidence we share many common goals about the fight against Global Warming, about the International Security, about also the role that the member states have to play in Europe and to play to have Europe stronger in the globalisation and last but not the least spoke about football because we have common appetite for football. I know that Jim had no time to see the match because he was very busy with the parliament during this week but we want also to try to work on the sport and the impact of sport in social cohesion for the youth and so on and very good as usual to have this kind of very friendly meeting with Jim.

JM

Thank you

JP

Thank you, thank you.

Posted at 14:36 12 March 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[0]

Decision on healthcare in France

Good news. Late last night it was confirmed that the French government has now decided that all inactive EU nationals who were resident in France before 23 November 2007 will be able to access healthcare via the Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU), both those who were registered in the CMU and those who were an E106 holder at the time.
 
I very much welcome this decision - it follows a lot of contact with the French government about the retrospective nature of their earlier proposals on the implementation of Directive 2004/38EC. I will be speaking to the French Europe Minister again today.
 
I appreciate the lobbying efforts many of you have made, which helped to highlight the significance of this issue for the European expatriate community - an issue which has understandably caused considerable anxiety for many of you. I know that those people directly affected by these changes have been seeking greater reassurance before now. The British Embassy in Paris has been passing on the most up-to-date official information we have received from the French government, but of course they couldn't pre-empt the outcome of our continuing discussions with the French authorities.
 
You can see the reply from French Health Minister Mme Bachelot to our Ambassador in Paris here.

For further sources of information, please contact the following: (also listed on the British Paris Embassy's website www.ambgb.com)
 
CNAM - The French Health Service (English language service): +33 8 20 90 42 12
 
CLEISS - (France's helpdesk for international mobility and social security):

11 rue de la tour des Dames
75436 Paris cedex 09
Tel: +33 1 45 26 33 41
www.cleiss.fr

Posted at 10:44 24 January 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[23]

Healthcare in France - E106 holders

Thank you to everyone who has commented about the issue of expired E106 forms. I can assure you that we are pursuing this point with the French Health Ministry, and requested before Christmas a fuller explanation of the arrangements for E106 holders. Once again we have impressed on the Health Ministry the urgency of the situation.

Our officials remain in close contact with the French authorities, who have promised more details in the next week. We have been assured that people whose E106 forms have expired will continue to have the safeguard of essential immediate healthcare provision, either through the Couverture Maladie Universelle or the Aide Médicale d'Etat.

The extra information from the French Health Ministry on the new arrangements for E106 holders should help resolve issues with local health agencies in France, whom I understand are not consistently applying the recent instructions received from the Health Ministry. The British Embassy in Paris will publish any further information we receive on its website as soon as it becomes available.

Posted at 15:51 11 January 2008 by Jim Murphy  |  Comments[64]