Pisani-Ferry heads for Paris

Head of think-tank to work for French prime minister’s office.

Jean Pisani-Ferry, who for the last eight years has been the head of Bruegel, an economics think-tank in Brussels, has been appointed director of the French prime minister’s economic policy planning staff.

Pisani-Ferry is leaving Bruegel eight months early, before the end of his third three-year term as Bruegel director. The think-tank’s statutes do not permit a fourth term.

Aged 61, Pisani-Ferry served a previous French government as head of its centre for economic analysis, and worked as an economic adviser to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was then finance minister. His father, Edgard Pisani, was a European commissioner between May 1981 and December 1984.

Pisani-Ferry’s economic line is more market-friendly than some in the current French government. His policy advice could prove very important, particularly in influencing the delicate relations between the French government and the European Union institutions. As part of the changes in economic governance of the eurozone, the European Commission has recently acquired new powers to demand economic reform of national governments.

In an article published two months ago, on the eve of the Commission’s publication of country reports, Pisani-Ferry wrote: “The Commission should request from Paris a serious plan for public spending cuts in the years to come. The French 2013 adjustment was mostly based on tax increases. The government has announced that further consolidations would be expenditure-based and it has pencilled €60bn in cuts. This is however a rather weak commitment because President Hollande has not spelled out precise priorities, let alone targets.

“So the Commission should condition flexibility for 2013 on a decision by Paris on the targets, timetable and process for a comprehensive public spending review. It is not enough to say that some government spending will be cut. France must say which and when.”

Guntram Wolff, Bruegel’s deputy director, has been appointed acting director while the search for a successor continues.