Pensions: on the eve of the launch of negotiations, François Bayrou asks social partners to "restore the financial balance" of the system for "the year 2030"

François Bayrou asked unions and employers to "restore the financial balance of our pension system in the near future" , adding that he "wants to set this objective for the year 2030" , in a mission letter obtained by AFP on Wednesday, February 26. This letter is addressed to the social partners on the eve of the launch of three months of negotiations to "improve" the very unpopular reform of 2023.

In mid-January, before a report from the Court of Auditors on the subject, the Prime Minister had only asked the negotiators not to "degrade" the financial balance of the system, whose deficit is expected to reach 6.6 billion euros in 2025. The search for balance over a five-year period should complicate the negotiators' task, even if in his letter, the Prime Minister "confirms that the joint delegation will be able to discuss all the parameters of our pension system, without totems or taboos" and that the social partners alone will decide "on the agenda of the work".

The unions want to repeal the 2023 reform, by reversing the increase in the retirement age to 64, and to better take into account the arduousness and broken careers that mainly affect women, while the employers' organizations defend the need for the reform. If the social partners reach an agreement, even partial, François Bayrou committed in mid-January to present their text to Parliament to amend the reform. Finally, the Prime Minister confirms in his letter that "questions specific to public sector pension schemes will be dealt with outside your conference, in another format" , in accordance with the "unanimous wish" of the social partners.