Abstract
To what extent have the new economic and budgetary rules adopted since 2010 (the European Semester, Fiscal Compact, Six Pack) changed the relationships between France and Europe in the field of welfare policies? To test whether the hardening of European Union (EU) economic instruments is followed by greater EU influence on social policy than in the past, we compare the role played by the EU in French welfare state reform before and after 2010, focusing on pensions, healthcare and employment policies. If one compares reforms before 2009 and reforms implemented when France has been subjected to Excessive deficit procedures (in 2009 and since 2013), one sees that the EU has gained two means of pressure. First, the need for deficit reduction is now explicitly integrated into French political discourses and policies and, second, the EU is able to demand evidence of reform. However, we show that France has maintained some flexibility on the timing and content of the reforms. Because, on the one side, welfare state reforms need to be negotiated domestically and, on the other side, of growing market concern about public debt, it remains difficult to claim that Brussels is the main driver of welfare state reform.
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- 1.
On the notion of Europeanization, see Featherstone and Radaelli (<CitationRef CitationID="CR8" >2003</Citation Ref>).
- 2.
Contribution rates were traditionally higher in private-sector schemes. Public-sector contribution rates were thus increased from 7.85 per cent to 10.55 per cent.
- 3.
This evolution cannot only be related to these measures: the decrease of the number of doctors and the absence of new pharmaceutical “blockbusters” are two main factors to take into account (Tabuteau <CitationRef CitationID="CR30" >2013</Citation Ref>, p. 195) as well as the broader context of the crisis. Health expenditure is stabilised or in decrease in almost all OECD countries since 2010.
- 4.
In the €50 billion reduction of public spending planned for the 2015–2017 period, €10 billion concern health insurance and €11 billion other social policies (mainly based on the freeze of the amount of social benefits).
- 5.
Already in 1997 Lionel Jospin, the new Prime Minister after the victory of the left parties at the parliamentary election, did not succeed to renegotiate the Amsterdam treaty
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Hassenteufel, P., Palier, B. (2016). Still the Sound of Silence? Towards a New Phase in the Europeanization of Welfare State Policies in France. In: De La Porte, C., Heins, E. (eds) The Sovereign Debt Crisis, the EU and Welfare State Reform. Work and Welfare in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58179-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58179-2_8
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