At the foot of the Defense district, a European public and bilingual school opened at the start of the 2019 school year to be able to accommodate the children of European civil servants expatriated from London following Brexit. She quickly filled her classes and saw the waiting lists grow. Beyond the staff of the European Banking Authority, which crossed the Channel in 2019, the establishment will gradually be able to integrate the children of bankers who are preparing to leave the City. “Ultimately, in 2026, when we will be at full capacity in our new premises, we will be able to accommodate more than a thousand students”, announces Valérie Ficara, director of the European School Paris-la Défense.
Following Brexit, a few thousand bankers of all nationalities have already abandoned London for the French capital. Arnaud de Bresson, general delegate of Paris Europlace, the lobby of the Parisian square, keeps the accounts.
“Obviously, the Covid-19 has slowed down some movements, but Paris is taking the “lead” against other financial centers in the European Union [UE], with 4,000 direct jobs being set up, he asserts. We can therefore expect a gain of around 15,000 jobs for the Paris market by 2022, taking into account indirect jobs: lawyers, audit, IT or restaurants. “
Paris, leader? Its European competitors are far from agreeing, each throwing numbers at each other, for the most part unverifiable. Faced with the 4,000 jobs claimed by France, Frankfurt claims to have also attracted 4,000 while estimating that Paris is only 2,500. Luxembourg has 3,000, Amsterdam “Not more than 2,000”… By adding up the “catches” of each one, about fifteen thousand jobs would have been relocated.
This total seems to blithely exceed reality. According to the firm EY, which tracks the announcements of 222 major financial institutions, 7600 jobs have been relocated from London to the EU and 1.3 trillion euros in assets have been transferred.
The reality is undoubtedly a little higher than this statistic, since only the official announcements are counted, but the specialists seem to agree: ten of thousands of jobs at most have left the City. A figure far below the forecasts made after the 2016 Brexit referendum. The most serious figures then evoked 35,000 offshored positions.
You have 76.31% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.