PARIS (Reuters) – Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that he hoped the government would submit by the end of the summer a vast text of legislation aimed at “reforming work”, in order to respond to the problems of recruiting companies and achieve full employment. here the end of the quinquennium.
This reform would concern in particular unemployment insurance, Pôle emploi, the Active Solidarity Income (RSA) system and training.
“The best response to purchasing power is work and wages and therefore this must be at the heart of our reforms and the progress of the coming months,” he said in a television interview. stating that it wants to maintain its unemployment rate target at 5% by the end of the five-year term.
He specifies that we must go further in the reform of Unemployment Insurance, adopted in 2018, which in particular tightened the conditions of entry into the scheme for beneficiaries.
Emmanuel Macron also intends to reform the RSA system by providing better support to beneficiaries so that they “get their foot in the stirrup, that they go towards the activity”, without giving further details.
He also mentioned the reform of Pôle emploi – now called France Travail – saying he wanted to focus more on the obstacles to access to employment, such as housing problems or difficulties in getting around.
The Head of State also says he wants a reform of vocational high schools to create more links with companies and strengthen learning to reach one million apprentices over a year. There were 700,000 apprentices in 2021.
He still calls for a reform of continuing education.
To continue to finance the French social model, which he says is very “generous” compared to other countries in the world, Emmanuel Macron repeated that “we had to work more and longer” and that discussions on pension reform would begin. at the start of the school year with the social partners.
In his campaign program, the Head of State had set himself the objective of raising the legal retirement age to 65 by 2030, before softening his position just before the second round of presidential elections. of April 24.
Several areas are under study. Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to “improve the quality of work, improve the work of seniors and work longer, taking into account long careers and the difficulty of work”.
He said he would like this reform to come into force for the first time in the summer of 2023.
(Caroline Pailliez; editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)