Paris: French labour will not provide social securities that it is enjoying today after corporate sector will no longer finance family welfare, representing a €30 billion ($41 billion) cut in levies paid by firms on labour, indicated French President Francois Hollande.
“In 2014, this year, we will save 15 billion,” Hollande said as he held an annual press conference to discuss policy and the economy at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris. “In 2015 to 2017 we will unblock 50 billion more. This has never been done before.”
“France has lost its economic strength over the last 10 years,” he said. “We must reduce public spending to reduce public debt, lower taxes and release the pact of responsibility.”
The so-called “responsibility pact” for corporations would be aimed at lowering their labor charges in return for boosting recruitment as part of a raft of measures to reduce unemployment.
As a part of new reforms, Holland said, business will no longer finance family welfare, representing a €30 billion ($41 billion) cut in levies paid by firms on labor.
While reforms first outlined in the New Year’s address were interpreted as a shift to a stronger reformist program, Hollande said the moves were not a change of policy but signal a need to go“faster, further and deeper.”
“It is imperative that France restores the power of its economy. There is no time to lose. France must rebound to retain its influence in the world and in Europe,” he said.
