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DW
14 hours ago
- Business
- DW
Paris Olympics, Paralympics cost some €6 billion — auditors – DW – 06/23/2025
Public spending tied to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris last summer reached almost €6 billion, auditors say. France is also due to host the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps. The 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics held in Paris cost French taxpayers just under €6 billion ($6.9 billion), according to an "initial estimate" by the national auditing body, the Cour de Comptes, released on Monday. It is the first time actual figures have been announced, with the auditors saying there would be "heightened interest" in them as France prepares to host the Winter Olympics in five years' time. According to the report from the Cours de Comptes, the organization of the two Games cost €2.77 billion, including €1.4 billion spent on security, with measures including the presence of some 30,000 police officers and gendarmes in Paris streets every day. Infrastructure projects linked to the Games, which ran from July 26 to August 11 and August 28 to Septermber 8 respectively, cost a further €3.19 billion, the auditors said. The president of the auditing body, Pierre Moscovici, had said said in 2024 that the sporting events would cost the state "three, maybe four, five billion euros." A more detailed report will be published in October, as other costs are not yet known, and another report on the legacy of the Games will be issued in 2026. The Cour de Comptes added that the figures did not include "the positive and negative impact the Games had on economic activity" owing to a lack of concrete information. It said that the Games were "indisputably a success with the public and the media" whatever economic consequences they did have. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Tony Estanguet, who led the organizing committee, questioned the estimates. "Through its methodological choices, the Cour has in fact declined to examine the only question that would meaningfully inform public debate: How much public money would have been saved if the Games had not been held in Paris?" he wrote in comments attached to the report. "It is undeniable that this amount would be far less than the €6 billion currently cited by the Cour. The organizing committee, as it already stated during the contradictory procedure, estimates that this figure does not exceed €2 billion, while the expected economic benefits of the Games are said to represent three to five times that amount," he added. Among other things, the organizers maintained that it was not valid to attribute some spending that predated the Games and continued afterward to the events. They also said it was not jusified to attribute major investments in unrelated projects launched long before the Games, to the Olympics and Paralympics.
Local France
11-03-2025
- Business
- Local France
Why France is falling behind in attracting international students
France is no longer a popular university destination for foreign students, who are comparatively more likely to head to establishments in 'Anglo-Saxon' countries or certain European countries such as Germany – or, even, Russia – according to a report by the Cour des Comptes, France's audit institution. In response, the French press has run headlines about foreign students increasingly shunning France. The evidence the press cited: France, which was second-only to USA as a further education must-go nation in 1980, and fourth in 2017 – behind USA, UK, and Australia – had fallen to seventh in the table, slipping behind Canada, Germany and Russia by 2022. Is France actually becoming less popular? The truth is rather more nuanced than the headlines suggest. The public institution for the supervision of public spending pointed out that the number of international student enrolments at French further education establishments has been growing steadily in France since the 2000s, but more slowly than in 'certain Anglo-Saxon countries or [...] Germany, thus causing a decline in its ranking.' Between 2017 and 2022, international student numbers in France rose 21 percent – which definitely does not compare favourably with Germany's 56 percent, or the UK's 55 percent. The Cour's report cited Germany, which it said gives priority to, 'meeting the skills needs of domestic companies'. It also referenced the UK, where it said, 'the recruitment of a skilled workforce and the contribution of international students to national research also play an important role'. It may, however, want to revise that view, given widespread reports of job cuts, course closures and a fall in foreign student numbers at British institutions currently. The Cour noted that, in the 2023/24 school year, France welcomed 430,000 international students – more than the population of Toulouse – and up from 358,000 in 2018-2019. Most were studying for postgraduate qualifications, with 36 percent of international students were working towards doctorates, 15 percent were on Master courses, and 10 percent were studying for bachelor's degrees. The country was on course to meet 'Welcome to France' objectives set at the start of President Emmanuel Macron's first term in office of hosting 500,000 international students by 2027, the report insisted. What about challenges international students face? That said, the report did criticise France's 'quantitive' over 'qualitative' approach to student numbers. Previous administrations had not set geographical priorities or targeted particular professional skills or disciplines in its international student goals, which would have required, 'more in-depth inter-ministerial work including in particular the ministries responsible for the Economy and Labour', the Cour argued. It also said that too little was being done to make applying for courses at French universities easy for foreign students. Processes were too slow across the board – from registering for universities, through to reception at establishments, arranging accommodation, and difficulties in obtaining a visa or renewing residence permits – despite the creation of the Campus France agency to promoted French higher education establishments here and abroad. 'All this must be improved qualitatively,' the Cour's report said. It recommends a global strategy under the authority of the Prime Minister's Matignon office focused on attracting international students who may be persuaded to remain in France to find work. In 2018, President Macron said that France was ready to welcome a wider number of international students – saying, 'Indian, Russian, Chinese students will be more numerous and should be'. However, today, the country's universities mainly welcome French speakers, and had not reported a notable uptick in students from mostly English-speaking countries. "It would be necessary to better assess the economic and employment market impact of welcoming international students by means of a cohort analysis renewed periodically," argues the Court. Economy Minister Eric Lombard agreed, saying in a statement in response to the report that 'It is essential [to attract international students] in particular in priority sectors, and to measure this contribution to the economy.' Lombard said that he was 'ready' to engage in a strategy coordinated by Matignon to, 'adapt our reception policy to the evolution of our economic partnerships and the growth dynamics of foreign countries'.
