France pushes for more children

PARIS — Working mother Catherine Ginier-Gillet has two children and would like to get going on a third. But Parisian life — too costly, crowded and frenetic — "doesn't allow it," she says.

Help is on the way. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is expected to announce today new incentives, including a boost in the monthly stipend for parents who take unpaid leave to care for a third child from the current $622 to between $850 and $1,215.

France isn't alone in worrying about the need to encourage births. Across Europe, juggling parenthood and modern life has led many couples to hold down family size, resulting in a decline in fertility rates that some fear could lead to economic decline.

In the 25-nation European Union, the average fertility rate has sunk below 2.07 children per woman — the minimum needed to prevent a drop in population without immigration.

"It is a kind of creeping crisis," said Jan Hoem, a director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany, where the fertility rate of around 1.3 is among Europe's lowest.

Ginier-Gillet, for one, is interested in the incentives de Villepin is expected to announce at a national conference on families that will bring together government officials, family activists, trade unionists and business executives.

"Ideally, I'd love to have three children, but my Parisian life doesn't allow it — the lack of space, the rhythm of fitting everything in, children, work," said the 36-year-old, who manages a graphic-arts team for a major retailer.

However, she added, "If the government proposed me 1,000 euros (some $1,200) a month and my job guaranteed at the end, I would say 'yes' immediately."

Hubert Brin, who presided over a government-commissioned study on France's demographic future and planned to attend the family conference, said yesterday that he expected de Villepin to announce a figure midway in the $850-$1,215 range proposed by his panel.

Among other measures, Brin's commission suggested that employers be encouraged to chip in for employees' child-care costs, that pregnant women get more help in the workplace and that mothers who take time off to raise children receive job training.

Although France is struggling to curb public spending and reduce welfare costs, "spending on young children is spending on the future," Brin, president of the National Union of Family Associations, said in a telephone interview.

Key to boosting fertility rates is making sure that women can both have children and work, because "if we force them to choose between working or being mothers, they will choose work," he said.

France already has generous welfare and child-care provisions to help parents, including lower taxes for families with more children. Mothers with modest incomes get a $1,000 bonus for each new child, smaller monthly payments until a child's third birthday and help with child-care costs.

The family-friendly policies have helped keep France's fertility rate among the highest in Europe — 1.9 children per woman, second only to Ireland's 2.0 but still below the 2.07 level needed to keep population stable.

The EU average is around 1.5, dropping to less than 1.3 in some countries, including Greece, Spain, Italy and new EU member nations in Eastern Europe where fertility rates slumped after the collapse of communism.

In a report in March, the EU's head office noted that "never in history has there been economic growth without population growth." Although immigration can help mitigate the problem, it said, the EU needs "innovative measures to support the birthrate."