On Friday 10 November, the Prime Minister announced an envelope of more than €230 million to help the departments, meeting at a congress in Strasbourg, to finance their spending on child protection and assistance for autonomy, while dismissing the idea of their disappearance.
Responding to the serious concerns of elected representatives about the possible abolition of a stratum of local authorities, which would be that of the departments, in order to simplify the "territorial millefeuille", Elisabeth Borne assured that "today and tomorrow, the department is an essential level for local public action".
'Freedom to act'
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To succeed, we must first give you the leeway and the necessary means. In a word, to give you the freedom to act," she added, stressing that "this freedom is decentralization," "a strength for our country, which we are ready to further emphasize." To help departments finance autonomy assistance for the elderly, Ms Borne announced that the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy (CNSA) would release an "initial envelope of more than €150 million" in 2024.
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Your expenses for autonomy assistance will be covered at least 40%," she said, adding that these credits "must first benefit the departments in difficulty." This aid is the "first step" in a revaluation of the current financial compensation, whose calculation is considered obscure, and which is paid to the departments by the CNSA under the personalized autonomy allowance (APA), Matignon said during a press briefing. This revaluation will concern all departments by 2030, when the State will finance half of the increase in new expenditure linked to ageing, which is set to explode.
Explosion of social spending
The Prime Minister also announced a contribution by the State, at an equivalent amount, to the departmental safeguard fund created in 2020 to deal with a sudden deterioration in their finances. The state would add between €53 million and €55 million, or a total of more than €100 million if we add the money from the departments. About fifteen departments would be eligible. They are now in the red due to the explosion of their social spending and the fall in tax revenues correlated with the real estate market.
Another eagerly awaited topic is the funding of the Child Welfare Service (ASE), which is expected to cost an additional €500 million this year due to the massive arrival of unaccompanied foreign minors. Ms Borne wants to increase state aid by about a third to reach the sum of €100 million. Finally, it wishes to continue the dialogue with the departments that began a year ago, by strengthening the consultation bodies on the issue of finance, child protection and the fire brigade.
The president of Départements de France (DF) François Sauvadet welcomed a "significant effort" by the State even if the requests were twice as high as what was obtained. "Sometimes the devil is in the details. We will have to examine this very closely to measure the reality of these announcements," reacted Stéphane Troussel (PS), president of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, recalling that "beyond the one-off measures, it remains to define the sustainable financing of the major solidarity policies of the departments". "We have to put the sums announced into perspective because we are 103 departments and it is very, very far from the difficulties we are encountering," also commented Nicolas Lacroix, president (LR) of the Haute-Marne Council.