FRANCE: France has the second-highest birth rate in Europe, after Ireland, but Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin yesterday told the annual Conference on the Family the birth rate "is still insufficient in our country". The average French woman bears 1.9 children. "If the number of families with three children doubled, the renewal of generations would be ensured," Mr de Villepin added.
The prime minister announced two financial incentives to encourage French people to have more children. Until now, French women received a government allowance if they took six months leave after the first child and three years with a monthly stipend of up to €512 after the second and third. From July 2006, women bearing a third child will have the option of taking only one year off work but receiving €750 a month.
Fewer French women - one in five - are having three or more children, because the first child is born later, at an average age for the mother of 29.6 years, and women are waiting almost four years between pregnancies.
Mr de Villepin also promised to double the tax credit for childcare outside the family home for children under six. He said a discount system similar to the reduction for large families on the French railways will would into general use for goods and services. The number of French parents paid to stay at home with their children has risen from 493,763 in 2000 to 552,149 last year.
The rationale behind the new one-year/€750 a month option is an attempt "to reconcile family and professional life", Mr de Villepin explained.
Contrary to popular belief, birth rates are highest when both spouses work, a study published yesterday shows. France combines a high birth rate with a strong female presence in the work market: 80 per cent of French women between 20 and 49 work outside the home.
Four years ago the socialist Jospin government introduced a 15-day paid paternity leave for men.
Ségolène Royal, the socialist politician and mother of four who introduced the parental education allowance system in 1985, said the new one-year option was scandalous. "When you have three children and you go back to work after one year, what happens to the children when it's so difficult to find childcare?" she asked.