Reining in spending

It’s good to know that the French government’s plans to reduce its budget deficit by €7 billion by 2011 isn’t an austerity programme, but a series of reforms.

At least that's what the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his ministers would have the country believe after Friday's announcement of "150 ways to cut spending."

"It's not by economising that we will be able to reform, but instead reforms will allow economies to be made," Sarkozy said in a wonderful doublespeak sound bite.

His plan is to modernise the State by introducing reforms aimed at cutting the deficit to zero by 2011. Last week the government raised it projected deficit for 2008 from 2,3 per cent of GDP to 2,5 per cent.

But the problem as far as many of his critics are concerned is that Sarkozy didn't actually give details of how those cuts are to be made. Instead he defined the problem - as if anyone really needed telling - and gave a broad outline of want he wants to have achieved in three years time without specifically saying how he expects to get there.

There's no annual timetable for cuts for example, an essential gauge of how on target the state would be in getting rid of the deficit.

Instead he presented a wish list of what he thinks will help, and his government ministers will now have to come up with the actual policies.

Sure he says one way to cut spending would be to overhaul France's civil service by only replacing one of every two retiring civil servants. That's an election promise he made.

But it'll be an uphill battle even if a majority of the French think it's a good idea. Around a quarter of the country's working population, or five million people, are employed as civil servants.

And they're not likely to sit back and see privileges taken away (such as early retirement or annual pensions based on the last six months of employment) that might actually help reduce the deficit. Perhaps that's why Sarkozy didn't go in to specifics.

There is of course already the spectre of that other (failed) election promise - increasing purchasing power - that has simply not materialised. Reducing the number of civil servants could well go the same way.

Another plan is to cut defence spending - no not on weapons, before any pacifists out there start getting excited. Instead Sarkozy maintains that the armed services could be administered more efficiently. At the moment each of them, the army, navy and air force, is regulated separately.

But even though it might make common sense, again there is no mention of how he is going to change that. Something presumably for the defence minister to be getting on with.

Sarkozy also wants to revamp the diplomatic service without actually saying how but simply by pointing out some of the many anomalies that currently exist.

"Is it normal," he wonders "to have 721 people working for the diplomatic service in Senegal while there are 271 in India?" Nobody would disagree with the absurdity of such statistics, but again Sarkozy neglects to say how it should be changed. That'll be a job for the foreign minister.

Friday's announcement was the second in a series of three major policy declarations. The first was in December when he summarised plans to cut back red tape in government.

And the third tranche is scheduled for May, when welfare benefits and social spending are due to come under scrutiny, with Sarkozy ominously confirming that "we are just at the beginning."

As far as today's declaration is concerned it would seem a case of the outline has been sketched and now it's up to the various ministers to do their bit and make savings. And to that end the president wants to set up an audit, presumably staffed with more civil servants.

The fear must be that as with pension and education reforms which the government has pushed through with mixed success, the opposition will protest loudly about the latest plans and the country will respond in its usual fashion with strikes and demonstrations.