Social Protection: A conference is being prepared to review our model which “relies too much on work”

"We are currently preparing a major social conference bringing together political leaders, economists, and social partners to collectively chart the future of our model," said Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet, adding that she is leading this project with the Minister of Solidarity and Labor, Catherine Vautrin.

In May, President Macron said he wanted to hold a social conference "in the coming weeks" "on the method of financing our social model" which "relies far too much on work" .

However, at the beginning of June, the general secretary of the CFDT, Marylise Léon, assured that she had no news of this conference.

In her interview with the JDD, Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet believes that the prospect of the 80th anniversary of Social Security in October "invites us to a clear-sighted, serious, and calm national debate" on the French social model. The Minister of Labor and Employment believes that "three distinct questions must be asked" about its financing: the "overall level of social protection," the "scope of what we wish to continue to finance through work," and finally "the question of alternative financing" if "certain costs are no longer borne by work."

"We cannot avoid a debate on this issue because France is characterized, compared to other European countries, by a much higher participation of labor in the financing of social protection and this seriously handicaps us," she concludes.