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French press review 10 November 2017

President Macron opens Abu Dhabi Le Louvre, but can the museum bridge the widening gap between Western and Islamic culture?

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We begin with reactions to the 'No Opinion' reached by the European Commission during its seventh attempt on Thursday to renew the license for the widely-used weed killer glyphosate, which critics fear causes cancer.

Le Parisien reports that the EU’s regulatory arm failed at the Brussels meeting to break a hardening stalemate on recommending the use of the herbicide for another decade.

This, after falling short of the majority needed to renew the license which expires on December 15. The paper reports that only half of the 28 member states voted for its proposal.

The paper says it is now up to an appeals committee to decide, when they meet at the end of November.

Le Journal de la Haute-Marne claims that the glyphosate question like others exposed the scale of red-tape within EU institutions and why the community is unable to snap out answers to pressing problems.

According to the paper, WHO findings that the weed killer contains a suspected carcinogenic molecule, while EU experts hold the contrary, leaves farmers and consumers confused about an issue of such importance.

For La Voix du Nord, the clear message ringing out of the stalemate is that lobbyists remain very powerful in Paris, Brussels and every place where politics is the fruit of democratic debate, to the point where the logic of politics and financial gain goes before the health of human beings and that of the Planet.

Some papers  comment on President Emmanuel Macron's diplomatic shuttle to the Middle East, marked by the inauguration of the Louvre Abu Dhabi hailed as a "bridge between civilizations and religions".

It is the first museum to carry the fames brand outside France. But la Presse de la Manche describes France's decision to transfer some of her most-prices works of art to the Abu Dhabi Le Louvre as a risk worth taking.

For the paper, it is one of those crazy risks taken by mankind, throughout the course of history, sometimes putting humanity’s survival at risk, so as to facilitate the convergence of sensitivities and minds for the sake of peace in our world.

A point of interest to La Croix, is Macron’s unscheduled stop over in Riyadh for talks with the Saudi King as tensions between Tehran and the kingdom rise over the crises in Yemen and Lebanon.

The Catholic daily holds that the trip marks a major shift from the laid back policies of Macron's predecessors in the Gulf, adding that it was past time to exercise pressure on the belligerents.

La République des Pyrénées agrees stating the risks of direct confrontation between Teheran and Riyadh are high, considering that the two countries can buy all the weapons they need to destroy each other, from their respective American and Russian allies.

In related news La Charente libre takes up President Macron's interview with the American Time Magazine in which he comes back on his failure to get President Trump change his mind about denouncing the international accord on Iran's nuclear program, which according to the paper risks pushing the country to become another North Korea.

According to the Charente paper, amid the simmering tensions between the two post-ISIS blocs, Emmanuel Macron needs to prove that despite the quasi absence of the EU's voice, France can still make its weight felt in the conflict-wracked Middle East region.

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