French lawmakers Wednesday urged longer paid parental leave and more financial support to make it easier for people to have more children, after deaths last year exceeded births inFrancefor the first time in decades.
“I’m calling for a family policy overhaul,” the lead author of a parliamentary report on the cause of dwindling birth rates, Jeremie Patrier-Leitus, told AFP.
That would “enable the French to fulfil their desire to have children”, he added.
The recommendations came after France last year — for the first time since the end of World War II — recorded fewer babies born than people dying in the country, according to the National Statistics Institute.
Fertility rates are in decline across the European Union.
While women in France still hold some of the bloc’s highest fertility rates, scoring second after Bulgaria in 2023, according to EU statistics, they would like to have more children, the lawmakers said, and would do so if the right measures were in place.
Recommendations include monthly payments of 250 euros (almost $300) per child to families until the offspring reach age 20, regardless of a household’s income, as well as paid parental leave of 12 months, to be shared between both parents.
Currently, paid maternal leave is a little under four months for a first child, while fathers are allowed 25 days off after a birth.
The legislators also suggested a few half days a year off for parents and grandparents to help children through key moments of their education.
The parliamentary report comes after France’s health ministry last week unveiled a plan to battle infertility, which affects 3.3 million French people.
Source: Insider Paper
