tensions between the Pensions Orientation Council and Matignon

by time news

Until now, the debate on the financial situation of pension schemes has – quite logically – focused on numbers. But it has just taken on a new dimension, the objectivity of a senior representative of the administration being called into question following declarations by Elisabeth Borne. During her greetings to the press, in response to a question on the deficit of our pay-as-you-go system, the Prime Minister gave the impression, on Monday January 23, of questioning the impartiality of one of the experts responsible for enlighten the opinion on this file: it is Pierre-Louis Bras, the president of the Council of orientation of the retirements (COR). It is ” may be “ conduit “to have a fairly personal position on the work” of the body he animates, estimated the head of government.

His remark follows a speech by Mr. Bras, four days earlier, during a hearing by the Social Affairs and Finance Committees of the National Assembly. He then indicated that pension expenditure “don’t slip”while pointing out that the COR’s projections show long-lasting deficits, mainly due to sluggish resource developments.

His remarks did not go unnoticed. Several media have spoken about it, highlighting the first term of the reasoning – expenses are under control. The oppositions seized on this idea to denounce, once again, the project to postpone the legal age of departure, which the executive justifies by invoking the need to bring the accounts back into the green. Of course, the government’s opponents have most often refrained from mentioning the explanations of Mr. Bras on the persistence of a negative balance.

“He respected his role”

All this excitement created annoyance at the top of the state. Which is not completely new. The COR is an institution bringing together parliamentarians, trade union and employer officials, qualified personalities and representatives of the administration. Each year, it submits a report, produced by a permanent group of specialists in the subject. The quality of the document is unanimously hailed, but the fact that it provides a wide range of scenarios – more or less unfavorable – on the financial outlook fuels criticism, particularly in business circles and among very good connoisseurs of the subject: those who complain find that the COR does not help to form a clear opinion on the health of the system, by minimizing the question of the deficit. Some even go so far as to suggest that Mr. Bras has a bias, recalling his service record: he was an adviser to left-wing ministers (Claude Evin, Martine Aubry).

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