Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Pensions

  • The Arguments For and Against French Pension Reform

    Emmanuel Macron
    French president Emmanuel Macron confers with his staff in the Elysée Palace in Paris, February 5, 2020 (Elysée/Soazig de la Moissonniere)

    Emmanuel Macron’s government has proposed to raise the French pension age from 62 to 64 and abolish early retirement in the public sector.

    Pension reform was one of the reasons I endorsed Macron for a second term. French pensions are among the most generous in the world, yet Macron’s predecessors balked at raising the retirement age for fear of protests.

    I have an op-ed in EUobserver arguing Macron is doing the right thing. I will summarize my arguments here and also give the arguments against reform. (more…)

  • Macron Is Right to Push Pension Reform

    Emmanuel Macron Ursula von der Leyen
    French president Emmanuel Macron speaks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in the Elysée Palace in Paris, June 3 (European Commission/Christophe Licoppe)

    Emmanuel Macron is moving forward with pension reform, and he’s right to.

    Macron’s promise to reform pensions was one of the reasons the Atlantic Sentinel endorsed him for a second term. He has asked his government for a bill by Christmas, so the changes could go into effect next year. (more…)

  • Macron Is Wrong to Back Away from Pension Reform

    Boris Johnson Emmanuel Macron
    Prime Ministers Mario Draghi of Italy and Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom speak with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany during a NATO summit in Brussels, March 24 (10 Downing Street/Andrew Parsons)

    Emmanuel Macron has suggested he could water down French pension reforms in a second term.

    “I am clearly opening the door” to a retirement age of 64, he told BFM TV on Monday, adding that “65 years old was not a dogma.”

    Germany and the Netherlands are raising their retirement ages from 65 to 67.

    Macron also hinted he might call a referendum on the changes. “I don’t want to divide the country.”

    What happened to the brave reformer? (more…)

  • Macron Should Go Ahead with Pension Reforms

    Emmanuel Macron
    French president Emmanuel Macron chairs a meeting in the Elysée Palace in Paris, August 27, 2020 (Elysée/Philippe Servent)

    Emmanuel Macron is reportedly mulling pension reforms that were put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    There are risks: reforms will almost certainly spark protests, including from trade unions, which oppose raising the retirement age. Macron can ill afford social unrest a year away from the election.

    But it could also burnish the French president’s reformist credentials after the COVID-19 crisis forced him into a more managerial role.

    Macron is expected to unveil his plans when he addresses the nation ahead of Bastille Day on July 14. The fact that it has leaked he may bring back reforms suggests he is testing the waters. So let me add my arguments to the discussion.

    I’ll take the political first before covering the — more important — substantive arguments. (more…)

  • The Silent Reform of Spanish Pensions

    Pedro Sánchez
    Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez makes a speech in Congress in Madrid, July 17, 2018 (La Moncloa)

    Spain has a critical and essential employment problem: high chronic unemployment and job insecurity. Both of these are among the key causes of an embarrassing inequality, one of the worst in Europe.

    Then, to complicate the solutions, comes the problem of the high public deficit, which has increased over the last decade as an inevitability. A debt aggravated by its dependence on external financing with a bias toward instability. And at the heart of this debt is the chronic deficit accumulated over the last decade in the pension system, which widens its deficit every year. (more…)

  • Macron’s Pension Reforms Are Eminently Reasonable

    Paolo Gentiloni Emmanuel Macron
    Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni is received by French president Emmanuel Macron in the Elysée Palace in Paris, September 27, 2017 (Elysée)

    Having liberalized labor law to make it easier for companies to hire, reined in labor migration from Eastern Europe to protect low-skilled workers in France and shaken up intercity bus service and the state-owned railway company, President Emmanuel Macron — just fighting his way back from the reactionary Yellow Vests protests — is taking on a reform of France’s sprawling pension system.

    You can’t accuse the man of not trying. (more…)