The French will have to work two years longer before retiring and the rich will pay higher taxes, the government said yesterday in an effort to drag the country’s pensions budget out of the red.
Under the plan, which is likely to meet stiff trade union resistance, the minimum retirement age will be lifted gradually to 62 in 2018 from 60 at present, French Labor Minister Eric Woerth told reporters.
“Working longer is inevitable,” Woerth said. “All our European partners have done this by working longer. We cannot avoid joining this movement.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes the reform will convince jittery investors that he is serious about cleaning up heavily indebted state finances and enable France to cling onto its precious AAA sovereign debt rating.
Even with the change, France will still have one of the earliest legal retirement ages in the developed world. Germany plans to raise its retirement age to 67, while Britain and Italy are standardizing at 65.
The state’s pay-as-you-go pension system is forecast to register a 32 billion euro (US$39 billion) deficit this year.
On current trends this is set to rise above 100 billion euros a year by 2050, with an aging population living ever longer, but Woerth said his proposals meant pensions accounts would be balanced by 2018.
Among other measures, Woerth said people would have to work at least 41.5 years by 2020 to be entitled to a full pension at 62, against 40.5 years now.
He also announced a wave of tax increases on capital gains and investment income, and said the government would impose a 1 percent surcharge on the top income tax bracket, raising 3.7 billion euros in extra revenue in 2018.
“Those who have more resources than others should contribute more than others to the financing of pensions,” Woerth said.
Most attention is likely to be fixed on the decision to raise the minimum retirement age, which was lowered to 60 by former Socialist president Francois Mitterrand in 1983.
Trades unions have threatened to battle any increase, warning of mass protests in September when the reform is scheduled to go to parliament for ratification.
In an attempt to forestall union anger, Woerth said those who began work before 18 will continue to retire at 60. People with especially arduous jobs would also be allowed to leave the workplace early.
Meanwhile, Sarkozy said on Tuesday that he was not concerned at the euro’s recent fall, especially against the dollar, with the unit going in the right direction to boost competitiveness.
“I do not share the cries of alarm over the fall of the euro. The fall in the euro makes our products more competitive [on world markets],” Sarkozy told a meeting in Paris.
“I really don’t see why we should give our competitors the gift of having a [strong] currency which makes some of our businesses less competitive,” he added.
The euro has fallen sharply in past months as investors have sold the unit down in favor of the dollar because of fears the European debt crisis could sink the whole eurozone project.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique