The day after the announcements by the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, which aim to generate ten billion savings, his Minister Delegate in charge of public accounts, Thomas Cazenave, announced, Monday February 19, the implementation from 2024 of ‘a flat-rate contribution from employees to the personal training account (CPF).
“This flat-rate contribution will be implemented this year, which will allow us to generate 200 million euros in savings out of a total of 2 billion”he declared to the press, referring to a measure ” just “ And ” necessary “ in a difficult context for public finances. A decree to this effect is planned for April, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Created in 2014, then reformed in November 2019, the CPF allows employees to have a credit system in euros to benefit from professional training via an online platform. In December 2022, the government had already wanted to make employees in training contribute financially, by tabling an amendment in the finance bill for 2023.
The text proposed “to establish participation by the holder, regardless of the amount of rights available on their account”. But the tabling of this amendment, in the middle of the weekend, within the framework of the budget which had been adopted by recourse to article 49 paragraph 3 of the Constitution, had caused tensions within the presidential camp, including among the Former Minister of Labor, Muriel Pénicaud. She considered that this amendment constituted “ a social and economic error; and therefore, politics ». But since then, the government has not published a decree to specify the terms. In a newspaper interview Opinion in September 2023, the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, explained that this subject was “less urgent”but there remained “still under study”.
Growth forecast revised downwards
This announcement by Mr. Cazenave on Monday is part of the 10 billion euros in savings on public finances desired by Mr. Le Maire. Guest of the 8 p.m. television news on TF1 on Sunday evening, the Minister of the Economy announced a downward revision of France’s growth forecasts for 2024, from 1.4 to 1%, implying a “immediate effort of 10 billion euros in savings”.
Mr. Le Maire is committed “like for seven years” not to increase taxes. Half of the savings will come, according to him, from a reduction in “operating expenses of all ministries”who will therefore have to tighten their budget” energy, [de] furniture, [d’]purchases “. The executive intends to recover the remaining 5 billion euros from ” public policies “notably by reducing “the amount of public development assistance is almost a billion euros” and another billion MaPrimeRénov’, the support system for energy saving work.
Bruno Le Maire mentioned a third source of savings: “State operators, all institutions which may depend on the State, [qui vont] contribute to the tune of a few tens of millions of euros, so that state operators make a collective saving of a billion euros”.