More teachers, police and aid for the young
An extra €6.8billion has been allocated to the priority areas of education, jobs and security under France’s 2017 budget plans, with the promise of more teachers and police.
Next month’s rentrée will already see a record 24,438 teachers starting new positions, with 93% of vacancies filled across the country. The increased budget will help with a record 40,000 extra students who will be starting university at the same time.
The rise in teacher numbers saw 100% of jobs filled for physics and chemistry classes and a doubling of the number of applicants for maths posts.
Budget Minister Christian Eckert said mainstream, higher education and research budgets would rise by €2.9bn while the Ministry of Labour will get an extra €1.8bn, mainly to finance the new jobs programme announced by President Hollande in January.
The interior, justice and defence ministries’ budgets will increase by €863million, €295m and €533m respectively as part of actions to combat terrorism.
In all, the money should go towards 16,125 new jobs in these priority areas; with 11,662 new education posts, 2,100 at the justice department and 1,746 at the interior ministry (mainly police and gendarmes).
On the opposing side, the ministries of finance, economy and national and regional planning face budget cuts, and the loss of 2,290 civil service jobs.
Mr Eckert said the budget includes €3.3bn of new government spending – the first for four years – while other funds come from economies in government spending and increased tax revenue as the economy grows with the increase in the CICE job creation tax credit encouraging employers to hire. A further €1.4bn is also expected from targeting tax evasion.
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Mr Eckert said the budget would still allow France to meet its target of 2.7% of public deficit as set by Europe.
However, the Cour des Comptes official audit agency says it has doubts on whether this is realistic, especially with the announced spending plans.
The warning came as President Hollande also announced extra spending on culture, with the aim of encouraging new funding from outside agencies. It is expected that this will amount to an extra 5% of funds on top of the €7.3bn spent this year – or about €365m.
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Mr Eckert said that since 2012 the government had cut spending by €9.4bn and had done so, especially in the early years when finances were in a poor state, while still managing to increase funds for jobs, training young people and security.
