The second set of procedures would be those agreed through ICAO. It is interesting, as always, to find out where these might differ from local (here, French) rules. I don't know. Anyone?
It always amazes me that in all the reams of ICAO documents, including standard phraseology for clearances, there appears to be nothing that tells pilots what the words actually mean. There is no equivalent of Section 5-5 of the FAA AIM.
In the UK it is generally believed by ATC that a clearance for an approach permits the aircraft to descend immediately to the charted altitude at the IAF. This is the excuse normally given for the UK anomalous phraseology for ILS approaches.