Recovery plan: when the administration is alone at the helm ...

Le Figaro

The budget marathon looks bad.

The president of the finance committee of the National Assembly, Éric Woerth, supported by the general rapporteur of the budget LREM Laurent Saint-Martin, sent a letter to the Minister of Economy and Finance to complain about the narrowness of the fiscal window granted to Parliament this year.

The National Assembly was to have just two days this year to amend the 2021 draft budget in committee.

Finally, the government grants two more days.

Or four… In 2019, it was six days, in 2018, eleven.

Read also: Recovery plan: the debate swells on the counterparts to aid for companies

Admittedly, the period is exceptional, but the budget will also be exceptionally complex this year since it involves the deployment of the recovery plan of 100 billion euros.

Recovery plan which presents itself in a particularly "squat" way.

On the one hand, it should be isolated in a specific mission separate from ordinary appropriations in an envelope whose arrows could change over time between the awarding ministries.

Moreover, it is very difficult to know which credits will have an impact on the budgetary balance in 2021, given that the recovery plan will be made up of classic budgetary expenditure, but also of future investment programs (new? PIA4 or recycled from previous programs not used?) For 20 billion euros, subsidies from the European Commission (40 billion), loans, guarantees and equity to the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation (20 billion), tax cuts (20 billion in local taxes offset by the State).

In short, a real "gas factory" that will then have to be ventilated over the programming period and, for our deputies.

A real budget puzzle that requires at least 10 days to amend the text correctly.

In addition, the public finance programming law that should have been presented in the 2020 budget, already postponed, was postponed last year and then postponed in April before the pandemic prevented its presentation with the European Stability Program.

Our parliamentarians are left in the dark about the evolution of public finances between 2021 and 2024.

Read also: Mayors worried about the recovery plan

The solidity of our parliamentary democracy is therefore affected by this test.

Parliamentary theory is based on the authorization of the budget.

As the Anglo-Saxons say, “

”.

This year, the right of amendment in Parliament will be reduced to its simplest form.

Here we are entering into an administrative management of the budget which does not speak its name and which gets worse from year to year.

Le Figaro

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