France’s Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt on Monday defended raising the minimum retirement age to 64 by 2030 as a necessary measure to achieve «balance in the system.»
«The measures we are taking are those that allow us to bring balance to the system in 2030,» he has defended before the media at the end of the Council of Ministers, also calling the pension reform announced by the Government as «fundamental».
For Dussopt, renouncing to raise the minimum retirement age would mean going backwards in the attempts to rebalance the system and also renouncing to guarantee pensions for future generations, according to the newspaper ‘Le Figaro’.
In this sense, the Minister of Labor has recognized that the increase in the retirement age is one of the aspects on which there is «disagreement» with the unions, although he has warned that it is «absolutely fundamental» and immovable. He also pointed out that this measure represents «18,000 million euros of savings by 2030».
For her part, the French Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, announced on Monday that the pension reform will be submitted to Parliament as part of an amended social security financing bill.
«I don’t think that the French people who have to understand the content of this reform are concerned whether it is in a PLFSSR (amended bill for the financing of Social Security) or in an ordinary bill,» she argued.
The French government has therefore opted for this controversial tool, which makes it possible to limit the duration of debates in Parliament, or even to approve the reform by ordinance after 50 days for lack of adoption. The Executive could also use Article 49.3 of the Constitution.
Borne announced earlier this year a long-awaited pension reform that raises the retirement age to 64 by 2030 and increases the minimum pension for all beneficiaries by 100 euros per month compared to the current benefit.
The measure has raised criticism from the opposition and part of the population, which over the past week held several demonstrations in the streets of the country’s main cities to protest against the pension reform.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
