France's Constitutional Council is set to issue on April 14 a verdict on the constitutionality of the government's much contested pension reform bill, it said on Wednesday, as protests against the bill continue.

The bill, which delays standard retirement age by two years to 64, has been met with wide opposition, though it would still leave France with one of Europe's more generous retirement plans.

The government had to pass it by decree, bypassing a vote in the lower house of parliament.

This sparked massive protests, yet President Emmanuel Macron continued to back the reform, saying it was necessary to keep France's pension system solvent.

The government has expressed willingness to talk to unions, with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne offering a meeting next Monday and Tuesday.

What is the significance of the Constitutional Council's verdict?

The council has the jurisdiction to scrap some or all of the bill, if it is deemed unconstitutional. In practice, it rarely ever strikes down entire bills.

Opposition parties are calling on the council to scrap the bill on procedural grounds. In parliament, the government had set a tight deadline for debating the bill, then bypassed a final vote on it.

Government talks with unions

The government has meanwhile invited unions for talks next week.

Laurent Berger, the head of the CFDT union, said he would take part in the meeting, but only to stress the demand of suspending the bill.

"Unions are not going to go to discuss something else," he told broadcaster franceinfo. "I'll go there to explain that this reform is a dead end."

Berger added that the government needed to understand the level of rejection of the bill, as well as the resentment regarding the way it was handled.

Protests and strikes against the reforms have been ongoing since the beginning of the year. But they intensified after the bill was passed by decree, at times even taking a violent turn.

rmt/msh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)