Public Finance: The Court of Audit's Plan to Save Up to €38 Billion

Freezing of social benefits, suspension of promotions in the civil service, increase in VAT... The bill could prove steep for the French. This Monday, the Court of Auditors is proposing 18 measures to restore public finances. They could generate up to 38 billion euros in savings from 2027 and some are already included in the government's draft budget, to the tune of 11 to 14 billion euros.

Among the avenues put forward by the institution is the freezing of social benefits, with the exception of social minimums. A measure which would save 4.8 billion euros in 2027. The Court also suggests suspending advancements and promotions in the civil service for a year (3.9 billion), raising the intermediate VAT rate from 10 to 13% (4.3 billion) or even better regulating reductions in social security contributions (3.5 billion), in the midst of protests over the cost of living in France.

“Precise and quantified” measures “We are at a special moment. Today budgetary discussions resume in the Senate,” underlined the first president of the Court of Auditors, Amélie de Montchalin, during a press conference. The deterioration of growth prospects “reopens the debate on the content of the measures to be proposed in the budget for 2027”, she said.

“We, the financial magistrates of the Court of Auditors, consider that we cannot simply reiterate the warnings” and “that we can, even that we must, contribute to enlightening parliamentarians on the solutions,” she continued. The objective is to present to them “a range of possible, precise and quantified measures to reduce the deficit”. Not an “alternative budget” The former Minister of Public Accounts, however, made a point of clarifying that this report entitled “Contribution to the restoration of public finances, short-term measures and medium-term action levers” did not constitute “a counter-budget” nor “an alternative budget”.

The 18 proposals include recommendations already made in previous Court reports, the figures for which have been updated. They mainly concern public spending, but also include, for almost a third of their total amount, reductions in tax or social spending. Their savings potential is estimated between 32 and 38 billion euros.

Machine-translated from French