Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Monday, April 29, 2013

France to keep defence budget stable, cut 34,000 jobs


LATEST UPDATE: 29/04/2013 

FRANCE - FRENCH MILITARY



© AFP

Proposed cuts to France’s military spending met with stiff resistance from lawmakers and the army on Monday, although the flat budget of 179.2 billion euros over a five-year-period will mean 34,000 job losses by 2019.

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and France24

 
France will keep its defence budget broadly stable for the next five years, after meeting stiff resistance from lawmakers and the army to proposed cuts, although the flat budget will mean 34,000 job losses by 2019.
A five-year blueprint for military strategy published on Monday said, "in total, from 2014 to 2019, the defence ministry will have to reduce its staff by about 34,000 people," in a broad outline of defence priorities.
The "White Paper", which covers the period from the start of 2014 to the end of 2018, maintains 2014 spending at 31.4 billion euros ($40.90 billion), equivalent to 1.5 percent of GDP, and sets a budget for the five-year period of 179.2 billion euros.
President François Hollande's Socialist government is battling to reduce state spending by 60 billion euros over its five-year term, and was forced in March to order ministries to save an extra 5 billion in 2014 as its deficit target receded.
"This new White Paper puts the emphasis on three priorities of our strategy: protection, dissuasion and intervention," Hollande told reporters.
The review comes at a sensitive time for France, a permanent U.N. Security Council member and nuclear power.
Its military has won plaudits for rapid intervention in Mali to help its former colony drive back Islamist rebels. At the same time, the operation highlighted its limitations in mid-air refuelling, troop transportation and intelligence gathering.
The defence ministry has borne the brunt of government cuts in recent years, seeing its annual budget decline from about 2.5 percent of economic output after the Cold War
A planned cutback in the size of France's armed forces was initiated by ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, who called for 54,000 military jobs to be axed between 2008 and 2015.

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