Reform der Alterssicherung in Europa: gibt es einen französischen Weg? (La réforme des retraites en Europe : y a-t-il une voie française ?

In France over the last fifteen years two important reforms in the basic pension systems (1993 and 2003) were made and numerous measures concerning the legal supplementary benefits systems were put into effect. Contrary to other countries, the role of the pay-as-you-go system as the main pension financing system has apparently continued. The early age at which a worker can claim a retirement benefit has remained unchanged. The core of the 2003 pension reforms strategy is the hopped reduction of unemployment in the next years, which will allow an increase of the employments' rate of older worker and thus an extension of the insurance period to get a full rate pension. In this context a limited increase of the pension contributions without a rise of the total social security contributions would be possible. Is there actually a French way to the pension reform? After an overview of the legal pension system in France, which allow us to present the content of the most important pension reform of 1993, we analyse and discuss, in a second part, the explaining factors of the new reform, which was adopted in the year 2003. The third part of our contribution is dedicated to an evaluation of the reform strategy and the expected effects of this reform. We will show that the answer to our question must be strongly qualified, notably because of the very important reduction of gross replacements rates in the long term, which could be one of the sharpest in the EU