FRANCE - The Conseil d'Orientation des Retraites (COR), which monitors the French retirement system and puts forward recommendations for public policy concerning retirement, is expected to recommend on Wednesday a further extension of the length of contributions for people born in 1955 and after.

The new measures - adopted under the 2010 reform, which aimed to increase the legal retirement age for people born after 1951 - were implemented on Friday.

Therefore, people born in 1953 and 1954 saw their retirement age pushed back to 61 years and 61 years and four months, respectively, with a minimum length of contributions of 165 trimesters.

However, no measures have yet been implemented for workers born in 1955 and after.

The COR is expected to give its views on the topic on Wednesday. The organisation could call for the introduction of new measures concerning this generation, and the length for contributions could be increased to 166 trimesters in total.

The new measures, if implemented, will follow the rules introduced by the Fillon law in 2003, which dictated that the length for contributions had to increase in relation to life expectancy.

According to a French pension representative, the implementation of new contributions usually follows the publication of the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies' (INSEE) report on life expectancy. 

Once the COR has given its view, the potential extension of the length of contributions would have to be enacted by ministerial decree before being implemented. 

However, several experts in France warn that this announcement could face severe opposition from trade unions, only five days after the implementation of the new legal retirement age.

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