Édouard Philippe will unveil the timetable and method chosen to lead the pension reform "sometime next week," he said Wednesday after a government seminar at the Elysee.
The Prime Minister will receive before Thursday and Friday, the trade unions and employers in Matignon. "Only once I have had these exchanges and I have tried to summarize all of what will be said to me, that in the course of next week, I will indicate the choices we will remember about the method and timing of the reform, "he said Wednesday.
"This bill, we will not prepare it alone"
The executive is cautiously advancing on the overhaul of the pension system, a campaign promise by Emmanuel Macron. High Commissioner Jean-Paul Delevoye, appointed Tuesday to the government, submitted a mid-July report to the Prime Minister to serve as a basis for discussions on the next bill. "This bill (...) we will not prepare it alone but we will do it by listening to the social partners, listening to the French," promised Wednesday Philippe Philippe.
The government must organize "citizen consultations", whose outlines remain to be defined. "We want to promote direct exchanges with the French, we want to use differentiated formats, digital, public meetings," said the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister wants to probe unions and employers
The Prime Minister said he wanted to put four topics on the table with unions and employers Thursday and Friday. First, "how do they see, they, the future pension system, what parameters they retain on the conditions of opening of the rights to retirement, on the elements of solidarity, on the rates of contribution" , he said. "The second question is: how do we make sure that the pensions system is balanced by 2025," he continued, recalling that he wanted to "start on land that is flat and therefore balanced "for the new system.
The Prime Minister will also survey his interlocutors on the transition rhythm between the 42 existing regimes and the future universal system. Finally, the fourth question must be about the "method" of the reform. "When we reshape a retirement system (...) we do not do it in a hurry and we do not do it in a vertical way: we listen, we question, we learn and we take into account what we hear" said the Prime Minister again.