Latest news with #Moscovici
Reuters
17-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
French audit office says keeping pension system unchanged is impossible
PARIS, April 10 (Reuters) - France cannot afford not to reform its pension system and it should look at how to get people working for longer and make changes to how pensions are indexed to inflation, the independent audit office said on Thursday. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has tasked the Cour des Comptes with analysing how the pension system weighs on the competitiveness of the euro zone's second-biggest economy. here. He commissioned the report to shape a debate underway among employers' federations and unions on how to revise an unpopular 2023 reform that gradually raises the pension age to 64 from 62. State pensions are an explosive issue in France and audit office head Pierre Moscovici was careful not to make explicit recommendations, although he highlighted that working longer and tweaking the pension link to inflation would yield results. "The status quo for the financing of the retirement system is impossible, or at least is insufficient to keep the system sustainable in the medium and long-term," he told journalists. France spends the equivalent of 14% of economic output on pensions, 2.5 percentage points above the euro zone average and financed almost exclusively by hefty payroll contributions and tax revenue, increasing the cost of labour and the fiscal burden. Moscovici, a former Socialist finance minister, said the system's impact on France's competitiveness was mixed but he acknowledged that it added to the cost of labour. He said pushing back the age at which people retire would boost France's employment rate, which is particularly low for people over the age of 55 compared with other euro zone countries. Moscovici also said that at least partially indexing pensions to wages rather than only inflation would ensure that retirees were exposed to the same economic risks as workers. French retirees' pensions rose in step with sharp increases in inflation in recent years while workers salaries often lagged.
Local France
08-04-2025
- Business
- Local France
France allowed 'major failures' in finances of 2023 Rugby World Cup, says watchdog
The French Court of Accounts pointed the finger at the first head of the tournament's organising committee, Claude Atcher, but also said the French federation (FFR) and the government had to bear some responsibility "because of major failures in the control they should have exercised over the organising committee". Despite promises that the tournament would generate big profits, it led to heavy financial losses, especially for the FFR. "Everyone won, except the (French) organisers," the court's president Pierre Moscovici said at a press conference. The tournament was an "undeniable success with the public, the media and in a sporting sense", but generated financial losses which could reach up to nearly €29 million once related legal cases have been resolved. "The financial targets were not met and the legacy resources left behind for rugby are virtually nil," Moscovici said. Advertisement He said the FFR gave unrealistic commitments to World Rugby to secure the hosting of the tournament. The international federation "achieved the best financial result in its history" from the tournament while the FFR made "a minimum loss of €19.2 million, rising to €28.9 million", Moscovici said. The government only really became involved in the organisation in 2022 following a crisis in the organising committee when Atcher was removed over concerns over his management style. Moscovici said he was concerned that "the French government does not have a clear, substantiated doctrine for analysing the conditions under which it provides its support" for the organisation of an international competition. He said he hoped the recommendations contained in the report would be heeded by the organisers of the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps. The French Court of Accounts was closely involved in the oversight of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics and is expected to produce a report in June. Atcher, in a formal right to reply to the report on the Rugby World Cup, claimed that "the catastrophic management of the event after my departure deprived French rugby of nearly €50 million in earnings".
Reuters
21-02-2025
- Business
- Reuters
French pension deficit to more than double in a decade, audit office says
Summary 2023 pension overhaul insufficient, audit office says Pension deficit to reach 15 billion euros by 2035 Unions, employers to use pension audit in negotiations PARIS, Feb 20 (Reuters) - France's pensions system will steadily sink deeper in the red in the coming decades despite a 2023 overhaul to keep it afloat, adding nearly half a trillion euros to the country's debt burden, the public audit office said on Thursday. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou had asked the Cour des Comptes to shed light on the system's finances for unions and employers, who are renegotiating changes to the deeply unpopular reform, which raised the retirement age two years to 64. The audit office's dire assessment dampens arguments in favour of rolling back the 2023 reform as some unions and opposition parties on the left and far right want to do. President Emmanuel Macron's signature reform sparked weeks of protests at the time and depleted his political capital as the government had to use special constitutional powers to bypass the parliament, where lawmakers would have rejected it. The audit office's head Pierre Moscovici said France could ill afford to scrap the reform, which would cost 13 billion euros ($13.5 billion). "If you think that (the 2023 reform) is sufficient, the answer is no. It will not be enough to meet future financing needs," Moscovici told journalists as he presented the much anticipated report. The 2023 hike in the retirement age, which still allows the French to stop working earlier than in most other EU countries, would help keep the pension system's funding shortfall stable until 2030 at around the 6.6 billion euros expected this year. But starting in the next decade, the pensions deficit would steadily grow to 15 billion by 2035 and balloon out to 30 billion euros by 2045 as the number of pensioners increases, the audit office said. The accumulation of funding deficits would by 2045 add 470 billion euros to France's already considerable public debt burden, the audit office estimated. The size of the deficit has been the subject of contention with Bayrou saying last month that the shortfall between contributions paid into the system and money paid out ran as high as 45 billion euros, disregarding subsidies and transfers to narrow the deficit. Moscovici brushed aside such approaches, saying there was no "hidden deficit" as any shortfall one way or another ended up being absorbed by the government's finances and therefore the public debt. Bayrou, a long-time centrist ally of Macron, has said all options are on the negotiating table between unions and employers, including the retirement age, as long as any changes do not leave the pension system deeper in the red. He agreed to re-open the potentially explosive subject of pensions as he aimed to win tacit support from Socialists to survive votes of no confidence tabled by other opposition parties eager to topple him. The audit office did not give explicit policy recommendations, but it made clear that raising the retirement age would have the biggest positive impact, estimating that lifting it to 65 would bring in an extra 17.7 billion euros. ($1 = 0.9604 euros) (This story has been refiled to add the dropped words 'who are,' in paragraph 2)
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
French pension deficit to more than double in a decade, audit office says
By Leigh Thomas PARIS (Reuters) - France's pensions system will steadily sink deeper in the red in the coming decades despite a 2023 overhaul to keep it afloat, adding nearly half a trillion euros to the country's debt burden, the public audit office said on Thursday. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou had asked the Cour des Comptes to shed light on the system's finances unions and employers renegotiating changes to the deeply unpopular reform, which raised the retirement age two years to 64. The audit office's dire assessment dampens arguments in favour of rolling back the 2023 reform as some unions and opposition parties on the left and far right want to do. President Emmanuel Macron's signature reform sparked weeks of protests at the time and depleted his political capital as the government had to use special constitutional powers to bypass the parliament, where lawmakers would have rejected it. The audit office's head Pierre Moscovici said France could ill afford to scrap the reform, which would cost 13 billion euros ($13.5 billion). "If you think that (the 2023 reform) is sufficient, the answer is no. It will not be enough to meet future financing needs," Moscovici told journalists as he presented the much anticipated report. The 2023 hike in the retirement age, which still allows the French to stop working earlier than in most other EU countries, would help keep the pension system's funding shortfall stable until 2030 at around the 6.6 billion euros expected this year. But starting in the next decade, the pensions deficit would steadily grow to 15 billion by 2035 and balloon out to 30 billion euros by 2045 as the number of pensioners increases, the audit office said. The accumulation of funding deficits would by 2045 add 470 billion euros to France's already considerable public debt burden, the audit office estimated. The size of the deficit has been the subject of contention with Bayrou saying last month that the shortfall between contributions paid into the system and money paid out ran as high as 45 billion euros, disregarding subsidies and transfers to narrow the deficit. Moscovici brushed aside such approaches, saying there was no "hidden deficit" as any shortfall one way or another ended up being absorbed by the government's finances and therefore the public debt. Bayrou, a long-time centrist ally of Macron, has said all options are on the negotiating table between unions and employers, including the retirement age, as long as any changes do not leave the pension system deeper in the red. He agreed to re-open the potentially explosive subject of pensions as he aimed to win tacit support from Socialists to survive votes of no confidence tabled by other opposition parties eager to topple him. The audit office did not give explicit policy recommendations, but it made clear that raising the retirement age would have the biggest positive impact, estimating that lifting it to 65 would bring in an extra 17.7 billion euros. ($1 = 0.9604 euros) Sign in to access your portfolio
