The French government will propose combining or eliminating a third of government agencies by the end of the year in a bid to save money, the public accounts minister said on Sunday.
“We will, by the end of the year, propose in the budget that a third of state-backed agencies and operators that are not universities are merged or eliminated,” Amelie de Montchalin, the public accounts minister, said in an interview with French broadcaster CNews/Europe 1.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou’s government has sought to cut the public sector budget deficit from 5.4% of economic output this year to 3%, the European Union’s ceiling, in 2029.
A carefully planned and executed action could be good (I don’t know France well enough to comment for sure there) but doing it right would likely take years.
What’s happening in the US is tragic and haphazard (and likely illegal, but fat lot of good that designation does these days).