December 2025
19Dec

European Financial Ecosystems. Comparing France, Sweden, UK and Italy.

By Stefano Caselli & Marta Zava The study examines the structure, functioning, and strategic implications of financial ecosystems across four European countries-France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Italy-to identify institutional best practices relevant to the ongoing transformation of Italy's financial system. Building on a comparative analysis of legislation and regulation, taxation, investor bases, and financial intermediation, the report highlights how distinct historical and institutional trajectories have shaped divergent models: the French dirigiste system anchored by powerful state-backed institutions and deep...

December 19, 2025
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17Dec

French MPs adopt social security budget, suspend pension reform

French lawmakers on Tuesday, December 16, adopted a social security budget, which includes the suspension of an unpopular pension reform, as Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu races to finalize a 2026 spending plan by year-end. The Assemblée Nationale approved the measure by 247 votes to 232, the first of two budget bills needed to pass before the December 31 deadline. The version of the bill lawmakers approved includes the suspension of a 2023 reform to raise the retirement age from 62...

December 17, 2025
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03Dec

‘Generation war’ dogs pension debates in France and Germany

A generational reckoning is brewing in Paris and Berlin, where a new wave of younger politicians is putting pensioners on notice: The system is buckling and can’t hold unless retirees do more to help fix it. Culture, language and local politics may add a distinct flavor to each debate, but the European Union’s two biggest economies are dealing with the same issue — how to pay for the soaring costs associated with the retirement of baby boomers. The problem is both...

December 3, 2025
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October 2025
17Oct

French PM survives no-confidence votes after making pension concession

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu survived two no-confidence votes in parliament on Thursday, winning crucial backing from the Socialist Party thanks to his pledge to suspend President Emmanuel Macron’s contested pension reform. The two motions presented by the hard-left France Unbowed and the far-right National Rally (RN) secured just 271 and 144 votes respectively — well short of the 289 votes needed to bring down Lecornu’s days-old government. Lecornu’s offer to mothball the pension reform until after the 2027 presidential election...

October 17, 2025
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15Oct

French PM backs freezing Macron’s pension reform to save government

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has told parliament he backs suspending controversial 2023 pension reforms, in the face of crucial votes of no-confidence later this week. The changes, which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, were seen as signature reforms in Emmanuel Macron's presidency. "This autumn I will propose to parliament that we suspend the 2023 pension reform until the [2027] presidential election," Lecornu said to applause from left-wing parties. Lecornu was reappointed prime minister last week only four days...

October 15, 2025
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09Oct

Modifying pension reform would be very costly for France, says finance minister

Any plans to modify France's pension reforms - whose unpopularity is one of the reasons behind the country's political crisis - would be very costly for the economy, said acting French finance minister Roland Lescure on Wednesday. "Modifying the pension reform will cost hundreds of millions in 2026, and billions in 2027," Lescure told France Inter radio. Elisabeth Borne, a former Prime Minister and the country's current caretaker education minister, told Le Parisien newspaper on Tuesday that she was open to suspending the pension overhaul...

October 9, 2025
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September 2025
19Sep

65-year-old retirees in France now have higher incomes than working-age adults—meanwhile, American boomers can’t even afford to retire

French retirees officially bring in more income than their working-aged counterparts, as Americans are struggling to find the funds to retire and support their post-employment lifestyle. Due to France’s relatively young retirement age, lofty governmental spending on pensions, and high wage replacement rate, they’re now out-earning citizens with jobs as the country’s officials try and make unpopular changes. While boomers in the U.S. and UK are being forced to go back to work because they can’t afford to retire in...

September 19, 2025
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June 2025
30Jun

Pensions conclave: What changes for retirement in France?

The French prime minister has hailed small steps of progress at his pensions 'conclave' - including one change which has particular significance for foreigners who have worked in France for part of their career. On Thursday, after four months of discussions between the government, employers and moderate unions broke up, France’s Prime Minister François Bayrou extended – again – the deadline to mid-July to allow agreement on sticking points. There has been no big breakthrough on the issue that has convulsed...

June 30, 2025
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27Jun

France. Defiant Bayrou won’t concede defeat on pension reform talks

 French Prime Minister François Bayrou is refusing to admit defeat after his signature effort to tweak the country's unpopular 2023 retirement reform appeared to collapse this week without a deal. At a press conference on Thursday, Bayrou asserted that the trade unions and industry representatives who participated in his "conclave" on the reform had managed to agree to several compromises that his government plans to legislate in the fall. Those include a commitment to make the pension system financially sustainable...

June 27, 2025
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24Jun

French prime minister to meet pension negotiators after talks fail

Months-long talks between French trade unions and employers over reforms to the pension system collapsed late on Monday, prompting Prime Minister Francois Bayrou to summon both sides to find a way forward. The so-called pension conclave's failure puts Bayrou in a vulnerable position, as his government can fall anytime if left-wing and far-right parties band together to back a motion of no-confidence. The hard-left France Unbowed has said it will call a confidence vote, and the Socialists are split. However, Marine...

June 24, 2025
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