Lons-le-Saunier (France) (AFP)

"Many questions are open": Debate Thursday in the Jura, Edward Philippe hammered a margin of negotiation remained in the pension reform, including the transition to the future system.

While the dispute seems to be organized in the face of reform, with the draft of a trade union unit (CGT, FO, FSU, Solidaires) to beat the pavement on December 5 alongside student movements (UNEF) and high school students (Fidl , MNL, UNL), the executive is trying to clear the ground.

In front of a hundred people Thursday night - mainly parents of students in Lons-le-Saunier and the neighboring town of Montmorot - the Prime Minister has repeated: the development of the new universal system by points, which will merge the 42 existing regimes, "it has to be transparent and it has to be discussed".

A milestone has already been put: the bill will have to be voted in Parliament by next summer.

The wish for a more participative and deliberative act 2 of the five-year term also prompted Emmanuel Macron to set up a citizen consultation before the end of the year. And even if the social partners have already been widely consulted to build the report of High Commissioner Jean-Paul Delevoye, issued mid-July and which serves as a basis for the future law.

The executive is embarked on a perilous exercise: how to debate a highly technical subject and therefore "a little arid" - dixit Édouard Philippe Thursday - affecting all French and raising as such "always a reaction", bringing the guarantee that there is room for maneuver?

"There are a lot of things that are not decided.There are many questions that are open," said the Prime Minister on the antenna of France 3 Burgundy-Franche-Comté, a few minutes before to discuss with the room.

Attention has focused in recent hours on the date of entry into force of the reform.

- "Not for tomorrow morning" -

In a working document submitted to the social partners and which AFP has procured, Mr Delevoye recalls his proposal for an "entry into force in 2025", which would amount to "applying the reform as soon as possible to the generation born in 1963 ".

But "other options are subject to consultation", he adds, referring to an implementation "from later generations", or only for "new entrants into the labor market". Some tracks already mentioned, almost word for word, in the report submitted mid-July by Mr. Delevoye to Mr. Philippe, but which suddenly resumed relief and gave the impression of a "shake" at the head of the State.

Republican President Christian Jacob has estimated that the executive "puts the dust under the rug" and "announces the reform for the next five years".

"We set the entry into the system in 2025," said Philippe Thursday night. "It's not for tomorrow morning, we do not want to go at full speed, we want to do well," he added.

For the Prime Minister, "it is not a matter of backing up, moving forward or jostling", but rather "to discuss and make an informed, negotiated and concerted decision.

Already in September before the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), Mr Philippe had assured he had "no taboos" and hypothesized a lagged application "for some schemes", evoking transition periods of 15 years.

Faced with the public, failing to be able to argue on a copy already written, Mr. Philippe has therefore tried to answer the doubts and concerns about the main principles of the reform: why develop a points system? How hardness, the number of children, will be taken into account? What about long careers? What will become of the reserves of the currently surplus schemes?

Like Emmanuel Macron, who inaugurated the format on 3 October in Rodez in front of 600 people, the Prime Minister should repeat the exercise "once or twice" by Christmas, dixit his entourage.

© 2019 AFP