The economist Gilbert Cet was appointed president of the Pension Orientation Council (COR) on Tuesday during the Council of Ministers, according to the official report, and thus replaces Pierre-Louis Bras, much criticized by the executive at the time of pension reform.
The government announced last week that it wanted to thank the former president, ensuring that this was not a sanction but consistent timing, after nine years of presidency.
Several unions had denounced an eviction linked to the positions taken by Mr. Bras during the debate on pension reform, which contradicted certain government forecasts and had triggered the ire of the majority.
The COR, which brings together 41 members – parliamentarians, representatives of employers and unions, members of major administrations and experts – is an expertise and consultation body attached to Matignon but which works independently. Its president is appointed to the Council of Ministers. He is responsible for analyzing and monitoring the medium and long term prospects of the French retirement system.
Born in 1956, and holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Paris I – Panthon Sorbonne, Gilbert Ce teaches at the Neoma business school and the University of Aix-Marseille.
Former member of the Economic Analysis Council, he is deputy to the general director of studies and international relations of the Banque de France, and since 2017 has chaired the group of experts on the minimum wage, responsible for submitting a report to the government each year. He is also the author of several works relating to labor law and macroeconomic policies.
In April 2017, at the time of the presidential election, he signed with around forty other economists a column in support of Emmanuel Macron, published in Le Monde.
We believe that Emmanuel Macron’s program is best able to lay the foundations for the new economic growth that our country needs. It is because it bets on work, youth, innovation, inclusion, investment and environmental transition, wrote the authors of this forum.
He has since spoken several times in the press, notably to support the pension reform which he judged, for example, in Les Echos in January, to be fairly balanced and even to ensure the sustainability of the regime.