PARIS, January 23, 2008 - President Nicolas Sarkozy gave the nod Wednesday to a 300-point free-market reform plan commissioned to "unleash" French growth, but vetoed several flagship measures to quell a mini-rebellion in the ruling party ranks.
   Sarkozy had asked Jacques Attali, one of France's best-known economists and
a former advisor to the socialist president Francois Mitterrand, to lead a
43-member panel of international experts in identifying obstacles to growth.
   Their final report, entitled "300 proposals to change France," proposes a
raft of sweeping changes, from job market deregulation to local government
reform, life-long training, boosting Internet access, investing in green
technologies or opening up French borders to immigration.
   Presenting his conclusions to Sarkozy and half a dozen key ministers at the
Elysee palace, Attali said the combined effect of the reforms could add a
percentage point to French economic growth by 2012.
   "We believe these measures need to be implemented quickly, and we believe
there is a limited window of opportunity to do so," Attali said, between the
March municipal polls and June 2009, when France votes in European elections.
   He said they would slash unemployment from 7.9 to five percent, create two
million new jobs and cut French debt from 66 to 55 percent of gross domestic
product -- as well as improve social mobility, ethnic diversity and even
increase the life expectancy of France's poorest citizens.
   Sarkozy said he was "essentially in agreement" with the commission's
findings, although he stopped short of saying he would adopt them wholesale.
   "Some may find your proposals frightening, I find them basically quite
reasonable... Our country needs an intensive course of modernisation," "

 1 2 Next >