Euronews Reports 2013-2014

Ballets & Opera in Monaco – Where the arts blend

Monaco Life 30/10/2014

Princess Grace Academy, Ballet of Monte-Carlo, Opera of Monte-Carlo are knowned as real experts all over the world. In Monaco, there is a real profusion of creativity that influences arts evolution.

• Report on Princess Grace Academy
• Report on Compagny of Monte-Carlo Ballet
• Report on Monte-Carlo Opera 

Copyright © 2014 euronews

Born to be Monegasque

Monaco Life 14/10/2014

Living in Monaco means having a real culture. A lot of people in Monaco contribute to building a strong monegasque identity.

Motors sport is a part of monegasque DNA. Thanks to electrical vehicules and races Monaco is going further to develop electrical solutions for tomorrow.

Barbajuan is a tipical snack, with a well-kept recipe .

School teachers pass Monegasque language to young students.

• Introduction on monegasque identity
• Report on Venturi 
• Interview Michel Ferry, Commissioner General Automobile Club de Monaco
• Report in Marc Costa’s bakery
• Reportage in a school class, learning monegasque language

Copyright © 2014 euronews

Monaco "Dedicated to the sea"

Life 29/09/2014

Principality of Monaco has always been really involved in all oceanic concerns.

This report shows two strategic places of this relation with the sea: Oceanographic Institute and Monaco Yatch Club.

• Report on Oceanographic Institute
• Interview Patrick Piguet, Head of Heritage Department
• Focus on coral growing
• Interview Denis Allemand, Scientific Director, Scientific Center of Monaco
• Report on Monaco Yatch Club
• Interview Bernard d’Alessandri, YCM Secretary General

Copyright © 2014 euronews

Monaco's day trippers

Target 23/09/2013

Monaco is not only a destination for rich tourists. Seven million people every year come to Monaco for the day. This type of tourism is the result of the boom in cruises -some 170 ships stop off in Monaco between May and October every year.

Guillaume Rose, Director of the Monaco Tourism Office, said: “Day trippers are people who are curious, who come to see the Principality of Monaco, what it looks like and wander through the streets.”

Day trippers also come from nearby – whether they live there or are just there for holidays. And they are all sorts of nationalities. So shopkeepers in Monaco have not really felt the economic crisis.

High end, business, and economy combined, tourism brings around 450 million euros a year into this tiny state – that is more than 10% of the national wealth.

It is difficult to evaluate exactly how much people spend during a day trip but it is easy to know which are the most popular attractions.

Perched on the cliff top, the Oceanographic Museum is a big star. Inaugurated in 1910 by the explorer Prince Albert I, this architectural jewel draws more than 600,000 visitors per year.

Robert Calcagno, Director of the Monaco Oceanographic Museum, said: “Since we opened the shark exhibition in June we have seen visitor numbers increase by between 10-15%. People can touch the sharks, overcome their fear, go beyond the common misconceptions.”

But the Royal Palace is top of the list of attractions. And taking photos of the changing of the guard doesn’t cost a penny.

Crammed into two square kilometers, it is possible to see the whole of Monaco in a day for a minimum outlay. These dreams are priceless, but they’re free.

Copyright © 2013 euronews

Monaco's industry going up a level

Target 30/09/2013

In Monaco not everything is luxury, quietness, and pleasure, to quote French poet Charles Baudelaire.

More than 5,000 companies are crammed onto the rock. Among them 111 manufacturing companies, bringing with them 3,000 jobs. Pharmaceuticals, cars, high tech or designer clothes, the principality is also a state which makes.

"Industry itself accounts for around 6 percent of GDP, whereas housing counts for 9 percent and financial services around 15 percent," notes Jean Castellini, Monaco's Finance and Economy Minister.

From the outside it's hard to imagine workshops hidden in high rises. Anne-Marie Noir heads the Asepta-Akileine laboratories which makes among other things hair care products. The entire production line is based in Monaco on five different floors.

"The first restriction is the fact that we work on different floors and that doesn't help the production process. Another is the price of rent in Monaco," explains Anne-Marie Noir, CEO, Asepta-Akileïne. She explains that the company received a little leg up from the government, " We're in a government-owned building, but it poses a problem for the employees because renting a place is so expensive in Monaco."

A large part of their 109 employees commute each morning from France and Italy. Around 45,000 of these 'daytrippers' travel to Monaco every day. That's 9,000 more than the total population of the country.

A different trade faces the same problems. The Bettina group specialises in designer knits. Philippe Prud'homme manages around 120 employees who supply Hermès and Chanel. Despite the logistical headaches, there is a bright side to locating in Monaco.

"We won't be worried about getting burgled every morning. We're located in a zone under surveillance, we have total peace of mind," Philippe Prud'Homme, Managing Director, Bettina.

Jean Castellini explains that there are no direct tax advantages to locating business in Monaco: "The tax on businesses is not particularly attractive in Monaco since it's a French rate. It's 33.3 percent. So we can't have any fiscal dumping."

As well as cut price rent on buildings, the state provides money for training and research. Philippe Prud'Homme is fighting for the creation of a clearly made in Monaco label, to let the world know that the country is not just made of money.

Copyright © 2013 euronews

Monaco's urban challenge

Metropolitan 09/09/2013

Monaco is a mere mountainside sliver of 2 square kilometres. Its 36,000 people make it the most densely-populated place in the world. The city-state’s heady mix of glamour, chic and wealth is hard to resist for people with money to spend or salt away. Demand for a piece of the action is high. For saturated Monaco the only way is up.

Planning vital expansion is a constant trade-off between demolishing period properties and forcing locals out, and adding square metres.

“The principality’s biggest challenge is growing. One study says we need to add around 350,000 square metres of useable space every decade. its surface area. So we are applying a an urban planning policy that ranges from extending into the sea, to rebuilding much higher on land,” says Public Works, Environment and Urban Planning Minister Marie-Pierre Gramaglia.

In 1965 Prince Rainier III launched Monaco’s most ambitious land reclamation scheme, the Fontvielle district. Eight years and seven million cubic metres of rubble later the town had gained 15 football pitches worth of flat land.

“Monaco has enormous problems to overcome if it is to grow. When we build we have to do unusual things, underground and with coastal works. No country in the world has ever built what we will have to do in Monaco,” says the principality’s Consultant Engineer René Bouchet. He’s worked on Monaco’s most recent land reclamation project, the dyke that now protects Port Hercule from the waves.

“We had to forget the idea of a classical levee, because we had depths of 45 to 55 metres to deal with. We spent time to come up with an environmentally-responsible design for a marine location that would also absorb the shock of the waves where it posed a potential risk” he says.

A semi-submersible concrete dyke made in Gibraltar was towed into Monaco in 2002. The visible part is only half the story. You have to descend four levels of car parks to find out how this part of Monaco is attached to the land.

“This is the impressive metallic articulation that fixes the dyke to the land. It can rock with the waves even in severe storms and disperse their energy into the landmass,” adds Bochet.

Monaco is not stopping here. A tender is out for a new extension.

On land it is all about height, not depth. Like Hong Kong Monaco has learned to live with public lifts and escalators. Forty assisted routes compliment traditional stepped pavements.

Architecture is so central to life there is even an expression, “France begins where the buildings stop.” And in the 21st century architects are once again looking to go higher.

When the Odeon Tower project is completed its 170m height will make it one of Europe’s tallest buildings. Designed by a local architect, delivery of its units begins next summer.

“The tower marks an architectural turning point for because we’re going back to the high-rise buildings that the principality abandoned 20 years ago, but applying contemporary styles,” says architect Alexandre Giraldi.

Forty-nine floors will provide stunning views at a stunning price; between 40 and 90,000 euros the square metre. The pool-equipped penthouse will be the world’s most expensive flat.

The price is partially explained by the technological challenges building the Odeon, which began on day one with the breaking of soil in 2009.

“We had to scoop out virtually an entire mountain slope, and 70 metre-deep retaining walls is I think a record for a private-sector building. There is no unbuilt space in Monaco. Every time something new goes up, something must be demolished,” says Giraldi.

This perpetual renewal raises the question of how to preserve Monaco’s heritage. New properties may be cutting-edge environmentally, but there is nostalgia for what’s been sacrificed, too.

The Head Conservationist at the New National Museum has spent two years reassembling Monaco’s past, through photos. The Monacopolis exhibition is the result.

“You’d have to be very naive if you thought you could preserve Monaco’s buildings eternally, as space is at a premium and we need more. But we might have to think about going to far one day. By building too high we might hide the mountain, and it’s Monaco’s mountain-sea location that makes it so beautiful, so desirable,” says Nathalie Rostischer-Giordano.

Monaco’s most significant buildings are of course listed and protected. Prince Albert II is committed to examining each and every high-rise project, taking both the need for square metres and the risk to Monaco’s charm into account.

Copyright © 2013 euronews