The French government has unveiled pro-business measures to liberalise the country’s dysfunctional jobs market, in an early test of President Emmanuel Macron’sdetermination to reform the eurozone’s second-largest economy amid sinking approval ratings.
The proposals, outlined by prime minister Edouard Philippe on Thursday, are central to Mr Macron’s plan to make France more attractive to foreign investors, coax businesses to hire more workers and tackle an unemployment rate of more than 9 per cent.
The plans are also designed to show France’s renewed resolve to fix its economy. By doing so Mr Macron wants Brussels and Berlin to agree to his demands that the EU do more to stimulate the economy and protect workers across the bloc.