News Digest: France Recognises Palestine as a State & Updating Brexit Residency Cards

Emmanuel Macron made good on his promise yesterday (Monday, 22^nd September) to recognise Palestine as a state. Speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the French president followed in the footsteps of the UK, Canada, Australia, and Portugal, all of whom made their respective declarations the day before, in saying:

“We must do everything within our power to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution. Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security. The time has come.

“This is why, true to the historic commitment of my country to the Middle East; to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

“This is why I declare that today, France recognises the state of Palestine.”

Alongside France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco also made similar announcements, which makes a total of 157 out of the 193 United Nations member states that now recognise Palestine as a state.

You can read more about France’s historic move here and here.

Macron might be receiving applause on the world’s political stage, but the French government isn’t faring too well on the home front. At least 500,000 protesters took to the streets last Thursday (18^thSeptember) to voice their frustrations at the government’s proposed spending cuts for the 2026 Budget, coinciding with mass strikes that affected transport, schools, pharmacies, and other services across the country.

Now, unions have presented France’s new Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, with an ultimatum, threatening further action if their demands are not met by tomorrow, Wednesday, 24^th September. Further strikes have already been proposed in the coming months, including a farmers’ protest (this Friday, 26^th September) and strikes by pharmacy workers (this Saturday and subsequent Saturdays from now on) and air traffic controllers (Thursday, 9^thOctober).

For his part, Lecornu has not yet announced his government or made any concrete proposals regarding the major task at hand – putting together a viable 2026 Budget. However, he has reiterated his desire to look for creative solutions to solving France’s debt crisis, as well as showing some attempts to rein in state spending, putting a freeze on state communication costs until the end of the year, ending the lifetime benefits of former French prime ministers, and, most significantly, abandoned former PM Bayrou’s proposition of abolishing two of France’s public holidays.

As always, we’ll keep you updated as we learn more.

A new “Verification of Payee” (VoP) system is being brought in across all Eurozone banks from 9th October, requiring banks and payment service providers to undergo additional steps to verify SEPA bank transfers. Essentially, the checks will serve to confirm details of the beneficiary account holders prior to transferring funds and should help to reduce fraud and limit errors.

When you set up a bank transfer, your bank will send a verification request to the beneficiary’s bank to confirm that it matches the information you provided. If it does, then your transfer will go through as planned; if not, you will be informed that it is either a ‘close match’ (indicating a possible error or typo that you may have made) or that it doesn’t match. In the first instance, you will be able to make the required correction and continue with your payment; in the second instance, you will be asked if you wish to continue. Be careful! If you do choose to go against your bank’s advice at this step, not only will your payment potentially be at risk, but you will not be covered by your bank’s fraud protection policies (in other words, if you do lose your money, you will be liable).