A charter of commitments was signed between the Senate and the government to try to stop the inflation of legislative standards applicable to local authorities, deemed "
harmful
", "
expensive
" and "
prejudicial to the development of the territories
", announced this Thursday the senators.
“
Normative inflation
complicates
local projects, delays their implementation (…) significantly increases their cost, sometimes disproportionately, especially for small municipalities
,” reads the document sent to the press.
Three objectives have been set: to give “
more visibility
” on the timetable for bills, “
to better legislate
” and “
better control
” of territorial texts.
The government, represented by Christophe Béchu, Minister for Energy Transition and Territorial Cohesion, undertakes to give visibility to the Senate on draft texts likely to have "an effect" on
local
authorities.
He must first make sure of the need to impose new standards.
“
This is called a study of options
”, explained during a press point the centrist senator Françoise Gatel, who pleads for a “
frugal and precisely dosed
” standard.
The texts “
with financial stakes
” will have to be the subject of a study of the “
foreseeable budgetary impacts
” on local finances.
If necessary, review clauses or so-called “
guillotine
” clauses, making it possible to abandon a voted text, will be introduced.
To better control the texts voted, the Senate will also set up a “
watch and alert
” function.
The role of the National Council for the Evaluation of Standards (CNEN), responsible for issuing opinions on the effectiveness of the texts, will be strengthened.
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Crafting the law differently
“
Can we produce a law that does not irritate?
Can we get out of the hell of the norm by making the law differently?
asked Françoise Gatel, citing the example of the law on “
zero net artificialisation
” (ZAN) of soils, whose implementing decrees issued a year ago were deemed inapplicable by the mayors.
“
We have an avalanche of texts which arrive very quickly, we chain the laws and we do not make an evaluation
”, she regretted.
The General Directorate of Local Authorities estimates the total cost of normative inflation for local authorities at around 2 billion euros between 2017 and 2021. In a survey commissioned by the Senate, 80% of the 1,635 local elected officials questioned believe that the complexity of the standards "
has worsened since 2020
".
“
By force, we no longer know the standards and we are illegal
,” testifies one of them.
