Delay in Submission of French Audit Court Report on Pension System
The release of the French Audit Court report, intended to clarify the financial situation of the pension system and serve as a basis for negotiations between social partners, has been postponed by 24 hours, from Wednesday to Thursday, Matignon announced on Tuesday.
"The report will be submitted to the Prime Minister on Thursday morning" by the President of the Audit Court, Pierre Moscovici, Matignon stated. The delay is attributed to a busy parliamentary schedule on Wednesday, including the examination of a motion of no confidence submitted by the Socialist Party against the government of François Bayrou, according to a government source.
Union and employer representatives were notified of the postponement on Tuesday morning, several of them confirmed when contacted by AFP. "Matignon informed us of a scheduling issue that forced them to postpone," confirmed Cyril Chabanier, leader of the CFTC union. He added that they were expecting to receive confirmation of the new meeting time later that day.
In January, the Prime Minister commissioned the Audit Court with a "flash mission" to assess the financial status of the pension system before social partners convened for weekly meetings until at least the end of May to re-examine the highly contested 2023 reform that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. Prime Minister François Bayrou believes that the methodology used by the Pension Advisory Council (COR) underestimates the deficit.
For several years, he has maintained a controversial position, held by a minority of economists and experts, that the pension deficit amounts to €55 billion, while the COR, the body typically responsible for official estimates, puts it at €6.1 billion in 2024 and up to 0.4% of GDP by 2030, or €10-15 billion.
Recently, ahead of the submission of his report, Pierre Moscovici indicated that the figures would be "slightly lower than those of the COR," released in June, due to a deterioration in macroeconomic forecasts, effectively dismissing Bayrou’s €55 billion deficit hypothesis.
"The Prime Minister was completely wrong about this hidden deficit," said Denis Gravouil, confederal secretary of the CGT union, on BFMTV. "Is it possible that the postponement was decided because the Audit Court’s figures did not suit the Prime Minister?" speculated a union official to AFP.
