The French government has slashed the value of the culture pass, which subsidises cultural purchases by adolescents and young adults.
A decree signed by Prime Minister François Bayrou, Culture Minister Rachida Dati and seven other ministers, halves the pass for 18-year-olds from €300 to €150 and comes as France struggles to rein in a ballooning national deficit and debt.
The decree, which was published on Friday and took effect on Saturday, allows for €50 for 17-year-olds and an extra €50 for 18-year-olds with disabilities or from families with modest resources. But it scraps the €20 available for 15-year-olds and €30 for 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds.
The new president of the company that runs the culture pass, Laurence Tison-Vuillaume, justified the cuts in an interview with Le Monde. “We are concentrating more on those most in need,” she said.
Last December, the public audit authority Cour des Comptes said in a report that the pass cost too much and was not achieving its objectives.
Dati endorsed the findings and promised to reform the system, but gave no indication that the value of the pass would be cut so sharply.
The French Publishers Association (Syndicat national de l’edition, SNE) is worried about the impact the cuts will have on reading by the young.
It said in a statement it regretted that the Culture Ministry took a decision on the issue before the “flash” mission of inquiry, launched last 8th November by the National Assembly, or the lower house of parliament, presented its conclusions.
The SNE acknowledged that the fundamentals of the pass and the free choice offered to beneficiaries were maintained. But it “deplored” that the 15-year-olds and 16-year-olds are excluded from the pass when a recent study by the National Book Centre (Centre national du livre, CNL) showed that this age group showed “the most alarming risks” of no longer reading.
The SNE also said it feared the reform would weaken the book industry, particularly the most vulnerable authors, publishers and booksellers.