2023-10-25 17:01:44
The government has decided to replace the president of the Pension Orientation Council (COR) Pierre-Louis Bras, whose reports he had criticized during the highly contested pension reform, a decision interpreted by the unions as a sanction. “Matignon told me that I will be removed from my position at the next council of ministers,” Pierre-Louis Bras told AFP on Wednesday, confirming information from Le Monde.
During the debate on the reform last spring, the executive and the majority criticized the COR and its president, accused of putting the scale of future deficits into perspective. It’s been “nine years since Pierre-Louis Bras (was) at the head of COR”, commented Matignon. “It’s not a sanction” but “consistent timing”. “The pension reform has passed, the new annual report was published in June 2023, and several qualified personalities must be reappointed,” we added to AFP.
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 by the council of ministers. During a hearing in the Assembly in January 2023, Pierre-Louis Bras drew the wrath of the government and the majority who were preparing the pension reform, by declaring: “pension spending is not slipping”.
“There are a lot of hypotheses in the COR report” and “this can harm the readability of its conclusions”, reacted Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. The reform – and in particular the postponement of the retirement age, little appreciated by the French – aims to restore the finances of the system.
“The COR must continue”
In June, after new post-reform forecasts, the COR was this time accused of “exaggerating” future deficits. For several unions, the sanction is in no doubt, despite the executive’s denials.
“His only fault was being independent and sticking to the facts and figures during the pension reform,” according to the general secretary of the CGT, Sophie Binet. “I think that’s what displeased the government.”
“The president of the COR pays for his interventions and comments during the implementation of the pension reform,” added Michel Beaugas, FO confederal secretary in charge of employment and member of the COR.
Unsa and the CFDT praised the work of Pierre-Louis Bras and asked that his successor continue in the same vein.
“The debate” on pension reform “did not give rise to much pedagogy”, but the COR for its part “set a benchmark in the matter”, welcomed Yvan Ricordeau, CFDT national secretary.
The COR has become “an essential body which must continue”, believes Unsa, which “will remain particularly vigilant so that the COR remains an autonomous and independent actor”. Pierre-Louis Bras, general inspector of social affairs, was appointed president of the Pension Orientation Council (COR) by the Council of Ministers on January 14, 2015.
A graduate of HEC, a law degree, holder of a diploma of advanced studies (DEA) in economics and a former student of ENA, he succeeded Raphaël Hadas-Lebel, who had held this position since 2006. Mr. Bras had notably part of Martine Aubry’s cabinet at the end of the 1990s, when she was Minister of Employment and Solidarity.
(With AFP)
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