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France eyes to cut 24,000 jobs in military forces on spending squeeze

29 April 2013 19:10 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. France planned to reduce 24,000 jobs in armed forces by 2019 in a move to trim defense spending and save billions of euros crucial to meet its financial commitment, a government paper showed Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Outlining Paris' five-year military budget, the Defense Ministry's "White Paper", recommended by the president Francois Hollande, pointed out the need to make savings "essential for the renewal and modernization of our equipment," the report said.

As part of the army forces' revamp, 24,000 posts mainly ground forces will be slashed, with the defense budget was put at 179.2 billion euros (234.7 billion U.S. dollars) over 2014-2019 period and by 364 billion euros by 2025.

"... Challenged by the necessity to renew the most of its major equipment and maintaining the operational activity essential to the effectiveness of armed forces, it must be part of the government's objective of restore the balance of public accounts in 2017," the White Paper noted.

Earlier this month, the French government said to further squeeze public spending by 14 billion euros (next year and to raise tax by 6 billion euros to get its public deficit under the EU limit of 3 percent of output by 2014).

Over the five-year-mandate, the Socialists want to cut spending by 60 billion euros.

"Decisions about public resources devoted to the defense and security issue must take into account not only the threats our forces are called to respond, but also risks that weigh heavy on our economic independence," Hollande commented.

"A balance must be found between these two priorities, so that the effort spent on defense and security is coherent with the required fiscal consolidation," the president added.