Members of the European Parliament approved the creation of a new maternity leave on first reading

This “additional maternity leave”, which will be added to existing maternity leave and paternity leave, will allow parents up to two additional months each to welcome their child.

New measures, following the suspension of pension reform and the rejection of the freeze on social benefits. Members of the European Parliament voted on Wednesday 12 November in favor of creating a new parental leave, allowing parents to each take up to two extra months to welcome their child.

Announced in January 2024 by President Emmanuel Macron in support of “demographic rearmament”, this “additional maternity leave”, which would be added to parental leave and paternity leave, was adopted on first reading by the National Assembly by 288 deputies in favor and 15 against. The Social Security Financing Bill of 2026, which contains this measure (in section 42), must still pass the Senate.

The duration of the leave will be one or two months, at the employee’s choice, and can be “split” into two parts, one month each, upon implementation of the transpartisan amendment. The initial text provided for implementation for children born or adopted from July 2027, but an amendment defended by Sarah Legrain (LFI) saw that date brought forward to 1 January 2026.

This amendment also stipulates that leave of “at least one month” is not taken simultaneously by both parents, with the specific aim of a better division of duties, so that the father or the other party spends time alone with the child, and so that the mother recovers any time she may have. The amount of compensation must be determined through a decision, the government has announced that compensation will be given up to 70% of net salary in the first month and 60% in the second month.

Some lawmakers regretted the measure wasn’t more ambitious. He “responds neither to the social emergency nor to the demands for equality demanded by real reform of parental leave”managing ecologist Marie-Charlotte Garin, also criticized the funding announced by the government to enable its implementation: a delay in increasing the family allowance from 14 to 18 years.