Paid paternity leave in France will be doubled from 14 to 28 days starting next summer, and fathers will be required to take at least a week off work after their babies are born, President Emmanuel Macron announced this week, offering one of the more generous plans in Europe. In September, the neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik suggested in a report commissioned by Mr. Macron’s government that fathers should be able to take up to nine weeks’ paid leave. Mr. Cyrulnik welcomed the extension announced by Mr. Macron, even though it is less ambitious than the report’s suggestion. Things move gradually — they are not done abruptly,” Mr. Cyrulnik said on France Inter radio. “The presence of the father is much more important than we thought, much earlier than we believed.”

Source: New York Times September 24, 2020 17:15 UTC