French President Emmanuel Macron has been awarded the Charlemagne Prize, an honour given each year by the German city of Aachen to those it considers make a significant contribution to European unity and development, when he told assembled guests at the ceremony, who included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that Berlin must do away with a ‘fetish’ for tight budgetary discipline among EU member states.
French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault presented the US Secretary of State with the insignia of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, France's highest civil award, at a ceremony in Paris in which he recalled Kerry's family connections with France and praised his diplomatic endeavours.
A Paris employment tribunal found that the bank knew of Kerviel's reckless trades that lost it 4.9 billion euros, and gave him back a yearly bonus never paid.