This time last year French president Emmanual Macron was riding high. By July the ride was over. After a hellish few months, there are doubts that he will be now be able to push through his proposed reforms for 2019. Macron's big thing was his determination not to back down in the face of opposition - until he did. His decision to find 10 billion euros to try to placate the Yellow Vests might not have neutered them and...
A new year and a new month are set to bring changes to life in France, including - from January 1, 2019 - a rise in gas prices, a ban on glyphosate, changes to energy benefits, tax, healthcare, and apprenticeships. Energy Regulated gas prices will drop by almost 2% from January 1. The national energy grant will rise by €50, and will help 5.8 million households pay their bills or make crucial upgrades to their home’s heating system....
The UK government released more "no-deal" Brexit guidance on Tuesday aimed at reassuring those citizens living in the France who receive pensions and benefits but the information is unlikely to ease their worries. The British government announced on Tuesday that it would implement its no-deal Brexit contingency plans in full, which will include putting 3,500 troops on standby and reserving ferry space for supplies. With Theresa May's Brexit deal seemingly doomed the government has decided to ramp up its no-deal planning,...
A first supplementary occupational pension fund (FRPS) has just been created in France. Aviva France has obtained the approval of the French Prudential Supervisory Authority (ACPR) to create a FRPS. According to a decision published on Tuesday in the "Official Journal", the insurer will be able to transfer into this new entity called "Aviva Retirement Professional" pension portfolios. Sometimes presented in a rather swift way like "pension funds à la française", the FRPS - wanted by Emmanuel Macron when he...
A promised pensions overhaul by French President Emmanuel Macron will be introduced in 2025, but workers will retain benefits already accrued under the existing system, said the man liaising between government and unions over the reform. A trade union leader and business lobby group representative said they understood it would take 40 years for the new system to be fully phased in. The government wants to align the retirement systems in the public and private sectors as well as the variety...
Two of France's major trade unions, the CGT and Force Ouvrière, have called for the strike, along with a students' union and a school students' union. A third labour grouping, Solidaires, has backed the call in principle but will take its official decision next week. In a statement, they condemned Macron's "ideological policies targeting the destruction of our social model, especially favouring an explosion of inequality and the destruction of collective rights". Decisions like the government's announcement that pensions, housing benefit and...
The last parliamentary session ended on a sour note for President Emmanuel Macron and his government, with the uproar over presidential bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, who was caught on camera assaulting student protesters while wearing a police crash helmet. The Macron camp is clearly hoping the dust has settled on that question, although the opposition is extremely unlikely to miss any chance to remind the public of such a major embarrassment. But there will be no change in strategy, the president told...
Public sector unions protested across France against planned reforms by President Emmanuel Macron. Demonstrations in Paris were crashed by at least 100 youths dressed in black with ski masks and balaclavas. They threw bottles at police who charged at them batons drawn, supported by tear gas and water cannons. Protesters suspended protest against planned labour reforms until the mayhem was over later on Tuesday. Public sector workers, including police, are angry at planned job cuts and changes to pensions Read more @Daily Mail
President Emmanuel Macron wants to scrap rules allowing some state rail workers to retire on a full pension up to 10 years before most other French workers. The reform plan risks inflaming tensions with labor unions who led the biggest strikes of recent decades in 1995 against a similar proposal that the government of the time floated before abandoning it and losing power. Macron has said his government will embark on overhauling France’s myriad pension schemes in early 2018, creating...
