The Senate on Monday approved the creation of a new parental leave, which would allow parents to each take up to two additional months to welcome their child starting January 1, 2027. This additional parental leave, which would be added to existing paternity and paternity leave, is one of the measures in the proposed Social Security budget for 2026.
The date of enactment is still debated, the initial text stipulated enactment for children born or adopted from July 2027. Deputies voted to advance the date to January 1, 2026. Senators voted to postpone this date to January 1, 2027.
Announced in January 2024 by President Emmanuel Macron with the aim of “demographic rearmament” in the face of falling birth rates, this leave can be taken by each parent simultaneously or in turn with the other.
The senators returned to the provision introduced by the deputies stating that leave of at least one month should not be taken simultaneously by both parents, with the specific aim of a better distribution of duties, so that one or the other father spends time alone with the child. They also voted so that this leave could not be split.
For Minister Delegate responsible for equality between women and men Aurore Bergé, this is a question of “giving more flexibility” to parents, for example cases where the mother needs to be supported during the postpartum period, the depression that sometimes occurs in mothers after giving birth.
Socialist senator Laurence Rossignol welcomed the “good measure”, so that the relationship is not only “between mother and child in the first two months of life”, a condition, he said, “for a more equitable distribution of mental burdens in the future”.
The amount of compensation must be determined by decree, the government has indicated that compensation will be given up to 70% of net salary in the first month and 60% in the second month.
Laurence Rossignol called for the loss of earnings not to be too significant, so that the measure remains attractive to fathers, while men still earn more than women on average.
This new leave will not replace parental leave, which can be taken until the child is three years old and allows you to receive around 400 euros per month.
